Harry Potter and the Girl who Died
by MyraDimm
Summary: What happens if a fellow student at Hogwarts is a vampire?
1. Chapter 1

AN: So this is my first serious attempt at writing a fanfiction. I am so excited and I hope that it is enjoyable. This is an OC SI.

Summary: What happens if a fellow student at Hogwarts is a vampire?

Book 1: Harry Potter and the Girl who Died

Chapter I: Before the Beginning

Here I was, living my normal life, doing my normal job, and perfectly content with normality. Then, one hot summer day, I was crossing the crosswalk, after having looked both ways, and a car comes careening out of nowhere and hits me. The world went black.

The first thing I became aware of was lying on my back on slightly uneven ground. _Uneven, the pavement wasn't uneven, it seemed perfectly flat to me_. The second thing I became aware of was soft feathery things falling on my face and on my hands. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a forest, it was nighttime, and it was snowing. I shut them again. _I'm dreaming, I must be dreaming, or I'm dead and this is what the afterlife is like_. I lay still with my eyes closed and began to notice a few more things. I could feel that I was wearing different clothes than what I normally wore….some type of robe? I was also quite thirsty.

Then I heard shouts "There she is!" Running footsteps.

"Oh dear me, it doesn't look like she's breathing" a matronly Scottish sounding woman said. Just then I realized that I _wasn't_ breathing and that I didn't feel the need to take a breath either. This astonished me so much that I didn't react as a pair of fingers were laid hard against my neck.

"She has no pulse." A man with a voice that was as rich and smooth as cream announced. _What? I'm…I'm not dead, because I'm thinking._ "Oh, the poor child. Whatever will we tell her parents?" I didn't want to cause them too much alarm by dramatically having my eyes snap open so I pretended to stir and I let out a low moan. I slowly opened my eyes and found myself staring at the sky still. So I turned my head and saw the astonished faces of Professor Snape and Professor McGonagall.

Professor Snape let in a sharp intake of breath and I realized he was looking at my throat "Minerva, look!"

She bent closer and gasped, "We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey."

Severus looked grave, "I'm afraid it may be too late."

Meanwhile, I was still just trying to process the fact that I was in the Harry Potter world. I didn't know whether or not I should be excited or scared. I closed my eyes again. I didn't know what the heck they were talking about but it did register that they knew who "I," this girl, was and that they had been looking for me. While I knew who they were I didn't have any memories of this girls' so I decided my best course of action was to pretend that I had lost all of my memories and didn't even know who they were.

Just as I made up my mind to speak to them Severus picked me up bridal style and my eyes flew open as I automatically put my arms around his neck.

He looked to the side, "I'll take her to the hospital wing. I think you should go get the Headmaster."

He looked at me and I finally spoke. "Sir, could you tell me what my name is? I don't seem to remember anything." He stopped dead in his tracks and Minerva, who had gotten a little ahead of us, turned around and looked at me in shock.

She looked at Snape and said, "Right, one thing at a time." She looked at me, "Let's not repeat conversations dear; wait until we have everyone gathered." Then she turned back around, transformed into a cat, and started running. It was my turn to be shocked, _running, at her age?_ I remembered seeing her walk quickly in the movies, but I didn't remember her ever running. This would probably be a good time to mention that I have only ever read the books once and that was ages ago, and that I haven't even seen all the movies. Snape picked up his pace a little too but we weren't going anywhere near as fast. I looked around at the dark forest and deduced that we must be in the _Forbidden Forest? Or was it called the Forbidden Woods? Oh goodness, how am I going to change things for the better if I can barely remember how things were in the first place?_ To my surprise we exited the woods, forest, whatever, not very long after that, so I hadn't been very far in.

About fifteen or so minutes later we arrived at the infirmary where McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey, and Professor Dumbledore were all waiting. Snape gingerly set me down on the bed in a sitting position. For a moment no one spoke, Snape was recovering his breath and everyone else just looked so very worried. I felt a twinge of fear, I didn't _feel_ like my health was in bad shape, besides for the thirst and not breathing. _Wait….does this mean I'm a vampire?_

Dumbledore broke the silence, "Child, do you really not remember anything?"

"No," I answered immediately, "I don't know who I am or how I came to be here."

Severus spoke up, "Your name is Esmira Thorncrow and you are in my house."

I gaped, "This castle belongs to you? Thank you kind Sir for rescuing me." Snape, who had probably never been called a "kind Sir" in his life, looked halfway between laughter at my question and bewildered at the latter.

McGonagall rescued him from having to answer and said, "No, Esmira, the castle is a school. You had just started your first year here. The first term is over and you were one of the few students staying in the castle during Christmas break. Hogwarts, that's the name of the school, is divided into four houses with one Professor leading each house. We can tell you more about everything later, but you were, I mean, are, in the house that Snape is in charge of."

Dumbledore said, "You just rest now while we get in contact with your parents."

Madam Pomfrey burst out, "But what about-"

Dumbledore cut her off, "We don't want to overwhelm Esmira, we'll talk more in the morning."

000

(A little while later in the Headmaster's office)

Minerva was not a person who was easily shaken, but she was clutching her teacup now as if the thing could prevent her from drowning in this mess.

Again, Dumbledore was the one to break the silence. "She is undoubtedly a vampire."

McGonagall set her teacup on her plate and covered her face in her hands, "Oh dear….." She trailed off. Snape began to pace from where he had been standing.

"Now, we have had a werewolf student and were able to manage that-" Dumbledore began.

Snape whirled on him "That was only a once a month thing _and_ he didn't rely on human blood to survive. I've tried contacting the girl's parents by floo powder and they didn't respond so I will be sending an owl immediately after this meeting and awaiting their answer. I can only hope that they do the sensible thing and take her home. They are reasonably well off and will be able to find a way to provide for her I am sure." Dumbledore looked uncomfortable, but didn't disagree and Minerva merely snatched her teacup again and took a big gulp.

"Well," Dumbledore said, "Perhaps you had better get started on that letter then. I'm certain it will take you some time to word it just right."

000

(Meanwhile…)

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Madam Pomfrey. You must be feeling tired."

"I don't feel tired actually," at which Madam Pomfrey looked suddenly flustered as if she had just remembered something. "Could you hand me a mirror? I don't remember what I look like."

She hesitated, then a resolute expression crossed her face and she said, "Of course." She went and got one and then handed it to me. I was unsurprised to see that I looked like a twelve year old, since they said I had just started school here and that I had a different face and different hair, I also wasn't really surprised at what else I saw, though a cold feeling of dread did fill me. There were blood encrusted bite marks on my neck, my skin was unnaturally pale, my face was rather gaunt, which was very unattractive, and my eyes glowed red. _They're actually glowing! It isn't even that dark in the room, just a little dim and I can still tell they are glowing!_ I swallowed, which only reminded me how thirsty I was, and I noticed Madam Pomfrey eyeing me nervously. I handed the mirror back to her, my hand was shaking slightly.

"Could I have a book to read please? I need to get my mind off of things. I don't feel like I'll be able to get to sleep." She nodded, left my field of vision, and brought me a book. "Thank you." I said automatically as she handed it to me, not even looking to see what it was. Then she got a little towel, dipped it in some water, and gingerly cleaned my neck.

After she was done she turned on the lamp by my bedside and said, "Just stay here reading and you'll be fine." Then she turned out the lights and left, maybe to go to her office nearby or wherever it was that she slept.

I could still hardly believe it. _I'm really here. I'm really at Hogwarts._ Then, _A vampire? Really? I vaguely remember one vampire being mentioned in the books and that nothing much was said about him. Vampires must not be very common. I can only hope that they aren't treated worse than werewolves. Even though Lupus was fired after he got found out at least he wasn't locked away in a cell somewhere. I really, really hope that they don't lock me away somewhere. That would be a miserable existence anyway, let alone knowing that you are in the Harry Potter world and that you could be learning how to do magic and everything._ Then I decided that worrying would get me nowhere and I looked at the book in my hands _A Beginner's Guide to the Healing Arts_. I sighed, but I had nothing better to do so I started to read it. I read until morning. When the sunlight entering the room didn't kill me, I took that as a good sign. It did make me feel very weak and tired though.

Professor Snape entered the room and sat in a chair beside my bed.

"Esmira, I've sent an owl with a letter to your parents. I expect to hear back from them today. Since you don't remember anything, if they decide to let you come back to school, you'll have to start your first year over." He paused, I nodded.

"I'm very thirsty. I don't suppose an animal would work?" I looked at him hopefully.

"Oh…you figured it out then. No, that's been tried before." He looked regretful.

I sighed, "How long can I…erm, live, without drinking blood?"

"I don't know," Snape said, "It might vary from vampire to vampire, not a lot is known."

"Could you take me on a tour of the castle?" Snape looked a little surprised, but agreed. We spent a good three hours walking around the castle, with the last place we visited being the owlery. No owl with a letter awaited us there. Severus looked worried.

"They really should have responded by now."

"Who?" I asked, having forgotten.

"Your parents."

"Oh."

"Well," he said "I'll show you to your dorm room. I imagine you'll be more comfortable in the dungeon where there is less light." I nodded gratefully, for most of the time we had been inside, but whenever we had so much as passed a window I instantly felt tired enough that I had wanted to sit down right then and there, which I knew would have been stupid, because then I would have been sitting in the sunlight. Maybe that was how sunlight killed vampires in this world, it made them too tired to move, and maybe if they had been out in it all day they still wouldn't be able to move as night set in, so they couldn't hunt, and then by the time they were feeling better dawn would approach and the cycle would repeat until they starved to death.

Well, however things worked here, I was glad to be shown my dorm room. There was only one bed with belongings by it so I moved over to stand by that bed and I looked back as Professor Snape silently left. I quickly rummaged around until I found my books and I was delighted to pull out _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_. I also found a pointed witch's hat, which I thought would probably help a bit to keep the sun off me. Even better, I found a pair of dragon hide gloves, I didn't care if they weren't for normal wear; I resolved to put them on the next time I went out of the dorm. I climbed onto my bed and I started to read the book right away.

000

Professor Snape went to see Dumbledore. "Her parents haven't sent a letter in response. I know that it is rude, but I think the matter is urgent enough that I will use the floo network to drop by unannounced." Dumbledore nodded in agreement. Severus went over to the chimney, used the floo powder, and soon found himself in what was normally probably a very nice house. It didn't seem so nice anymore, because in the room in front of him, were the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Thorncrow. He immediately went back to Hogwarts, not wanting to disturb anything in the room.

Dumbledore looked at him, startled, "That was quick."

Snape went to a chair and sat down. "They're dead." He said, heavily.

Dumbledore looked alarmed. "I'll notify the Department of Magical Law Enforcement." He went and used the floo network. After some moments Severus stood up to go inform Esmira.

000

When Snape told me I was very surprised. My parents were murdered, probably on the same night that I was made a vampire, that seemed very suspicious.

"Well," I floundered awkwardly, while rubbing the back of my neck with my hand, "I can't say that I miss them because I don't remember them, but that certainly is awful that they were murdered."

It was hours before Dumbledore returned. In fact it was nearly nightfall. Snape came and got me and we headed up to the Headmasters office. Even though I already knew what would happen, I didn't have to fake the impressed look on my face at the spiraling staircase, it _was_ really cool.

Dumbledore looked very weary as we all sat down, McGonagall was there too, and before he even began speaking I said to him, "I don't know everything you've done for me, but I want to thank you, and you Professor Snape, for being so kind to me."

At this Dumbledore looked a tad less tired and began to speak. "The Department of Magical Law Enforcement have no leads on the culprit. Your parent's funeral will be in three days. It has all been arranged. Their will, will be read in two days, though you are their only child so everything will probably pass to you as you have no living relatives. You are now an orphan, but I have already started the process to have the school adopt you."

"The school!?" Professor McGonagall exclaimed.

"Yes," Dumbledore said, "After all, Esmira is immortal, but she is only twelve, no one would hire her even after she graduates because of her apparent age or her condition. She will have to be like Professor Binns, tied to the school, perhaps a few years after she graduates she can even take over teaching that class for him. After all, important history has happened since he died that he doesn't teach."

"I…I am very grateful." I stuttered, the full severity of my situation hitting me like a ton of bricks. Yes, living here was an adventure right now, but I didn't want to be stuck here forever. For that matter I didn't want to live forever either, even if I could leave Hogwarts, I imagined that life would get very dull after a few centuries. I would probably get tired of reading eventually, then I would get tired of the next hobby, and the next, and the next, and eventually life would just be completely tedious, with no joy at all, especially if I kept on making friends and they kept on dying.

I was almost walking in a daze as Snape escorted me back to the Slytherin dorm, I couldn't remember the way yet. Everything happened as Dumbledore predicted, I inherited everything, my parents were buried, though I did not attend the funeral, because it was not yet public knowledge that I was a vampire, and Dumbledore wanted to finalize the adoption procedure before it was made known. During the nights I would either read or think about my situation. The more I thought about it the more I considered that _perhaps the girl whose body I am inhabiting wasn't supposed to have been made into a vampire. Certainly if the vampire who had bitten her had meant it, that vampire would have stuck around long enough to, I don't know, make certain that the process was complete or talk to her after it was. Perhaps she died because of the attack and my soul has come here, inhabited her body, and made her be undead. I just don't know enough about how vampires "work" in this world. Is getting bitten enough to turn you? Or would you have to be bitten and then drink some of the vampire's blood? It must be the second, because there aren't hardly any mentions of vampires in Harry Potter._

My suspicions were confirmed as a result of what happened the very next morning in an incident that I am ashamed to recount. I had been at Hogwarts for six days, and this was the morning of the seventh. When morning came, my vision turned red, as if I was looking through red colored glasses. My throat burned unbearably and I had been pacing for the past hour. I went mad with thirst and started to look to see if I could find any blood in the room. I know how irrational that sounds now, but I wasn't thinking straight. I threw pillows and blankets off of all the beds, I opened all the drawers, I crawled over every inch of carpet in search of a drop. I was near the door when it opened. I jumped on the human, and sank my fangs into its neck. That was when I discovered the properties of vampire fangs, they were solid before, but they hollowed now, and I drank like drinking from two straws, directly into my veins. Before I had time to fully appreciate the logic of that, because it really doesn't make sense, to swallow blood down your throat, where it would just end up in your stomach, when it needs to replenish your veins, I was forcefully detached by a strong punch to the gut. I tumbled to the floor, my vision returned to normal, and I saw Professor Snape staring down at me in disgust. _Oh._ He had come to get me, like usual, to take me to the breakfast table so that I could have some semblance of a normal life.

I scrambled to my feet, "I'm sorry-"

"Don't bother." He snarled and left.

I was absolutely miserable for the rest of the day. I spent the entire morning cleaning up the room which had taken me such a short time to make a complete mess. I was too ashamed to try to find him and apologize again or to try and confide in any of the other professors, including Dumbledore. If I could have wept, I would have, but I found that I couldn't even do that. The day after that Dumbledore himself came and told me that as the students were coming back soon for second term, they had decided that I should move back to the infirmary with my belongings so that the students of my year wouldn't find out, or at least that they wouldn't find out as soon.

The next couple of months were not the happiest of my life. I wasn't allowed to leave the infirmary, and whenever there was another student there, the curtains around my bed were always kept shut and I had to hide under the covers for good measure if the student was brave enough to risk the wrath of Madam Pomfrey to see who was in the bed behind the curtains. She became my only link to the outside world, and she brought me lots and lots of books. I don't know where she got it, but she also provided me with blood every seven days. Professor Snape came and visited me briefly after two months. I had been dreading this moment, since I couldn't cry to convey my sincerity I had decided to abandon all pride and kneel and beg his forgiveness. I really didn't want him to be my enemy or to hate me.

As soon as I saw him I got out of bed but before I could kneel, before I could even speak, he said, "You are forgiven. When I had more time to think and cool down, I considered what little I had seen of the state of the room. You must have been half mad with thirst. Besides, I am unharmed, no permanent damage done."

"Oh, I am so glad. I was so worried." I hastily said.

"I have also come to inform you that the adoption process is going very well, due to the unusual circumstance of the school adopting you though, it will probably be several more months before everything is finalized."

"That's good." I said, relieved. I didn't want the process to fail, I didn't know if Dumbledore would be forced to offer me up for adoption to any Slytherin families because that would be very bad.

A few months later Dumbledore came and announced "The adoption process is complete! Also, the term is ending soon. Most of the professors leave over the summer break but one or two always stay. I believe that this time around it will be Professors Flitwick and McGonagall. Oh, and Madam Pomfrey will stay just for you, though she normally goes home. You will no longer have to hide in here and you will be starting school next term as a first year."

I nodded and grinned. I had gotten thoroughly bored of reading in this room. Occasionally I practiced simple spells with my wand. I had asked Madam Pomfrey to tell me a simple spell on the grounds that I wanted to make certain my wand still worked for me and she had taught me _Wingardium Leviosa_. I was very relieved to find out that yes, my wand worked, and that yes, I could do magic. Though it did bother me a little that I didn't know what my wand was made of.

Summer passed by quicker than I expected it to. I talked with McGonagall a lot about what it was like for her to be a student at Hogwarts. I played dozens of games of wizard's chess with Flitwick, though I nearly always lost and the times that I won I couldn't help but suspect he was just being nice. I also learned that Madam Pomfrey wasn't always severe and that she enjoyed a good game of wizard's chess too and I won against her more often than I did against Flitwick. I repeatedly expressed my gratitude at everything she was doing for me.

I was nearly bursting with excitement by the time the night of the sorting came. The professors had come back a week or so before. Poor Quirrell nearly fainted when he met me and immediately asked Headmaster Dumbledore if I could be excluded from his class but Dumbledore put his foot down and said there would be no nonsense of that sort, that I was perfectly civilized.

It was decided that I would stand with McGonagall at the top of the stairs and await the new first years. I nearly jumped up and down with delight when I saw that among them was the Boy who Lived.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: I am terrible at coming up with names that sound like they would belong in _Harry Potter_. Later on in this chapter don't be surprised to read names like John and Susan. I would be very happy to replace those names with others if anyone has any suggestions. Also, since I am planning on going chapter by chapter through the book, some of my chapters may be rather short like this one.

Chapter II: The Sorting Hat

Harry Potter looked up at the tall, imposing witch and thought that this was not someone he would want to cross. Then he looked at the girl next to her, wearing a witch's hat that seemed two times too big. She had gleaming red eyes and was grinning, he could clearly see fangs.

He nudged Ron and asked, "Ron, are vampires real?"

"Course they are." Ron said.

Draco overheard and scoffed, "You don't even know about vampires? Well, you won't find any here. They've nearly been hunted to extinction, though why the Ministry made a law to ban hunting them is beyond me. Filthy creatures." He clearly hadn't noticed the girl yet. More of the other first years were beginning to notice though.

One girl let out a shriek and pointed "A vampire!"

Everyone started talking at once and there was nearly a stampede but Hagrid shouted "SILENCE!"

The tall witch spoke up, "Thank you Hagrid, I will take it from here." The vampire girl was now half hiding behind the old witch and peering nervously at everyone. "My name is Professor McGonagall. This.." the girl moved to her side again "….is Esmira Thorncrow. Her condition is not one to be feared, and she will be in your class this year."

Draco spoke up, "My father will hear about this! How dare you allow, not only Muggle-borns, but this creature into the school!?" Professor McGonagall merely fixed him with such a glare that he shrank back.

"Follow me." She said.

000

I would be lying if I said that I wasn't shaken by everyone's reaction to me. I had gotten used to the adults acceptance. I had been surprised by Draco's outcry, I would have thought that he would be fine with it, vampires traditionally being an evil creature and all, but maybe that was why he wasn't fine with it, since the Malfoys had a reputation to protect. As we walked to the great hall McGonagall began explaining about the sorting and everything. When she got to the part about earning House points I was startled though. _Of course, House points! How could I have forgotten about House points?_ I berated myself for not having paid enough attention to the Harry Potter stories when I had the chance. I had just been a fan of other things, so of _course_ I ended up here, and not, say, in Narnia. I was also alarmed when, upon arriving at an antechamber, Professor McGonagall told us that she was leaving us, and that she would return shortly. As soon as she had left several students glared and backed away from me, while others looked fearful and backed away. One figure separated herself from the group and marched right up to me. Her bushy brown hair gave me all the warning I needed before she leaned towards me, studying me.

"I'm Hermione Granger. Is it true that you are a vampire? I read all about them as soon as I heard they really exist. Professor McGonagall just said that you had a condition. What's it like being turned into one?" I looked around, everyone was staring at me intently, even the ones who had previously been glaring looked curious.

"It is true. I, I don't remember what it was like. In fact, I lost all my memories from before it happened." Several students gasped at this. "I-"

Well, I don't really know what I would have said next because suddenly, the very same student who had shrieked "Vampire!" now shrieked and pointed "Ghosts!" Sure enough, about twenty ghosts had come streaming in through the back wall.

000

Harry followed that tall witch until they reached an antechamber and she left them. He noticed the reactions of the other students to the vampire. He nudged Ron again and whispered, "Are vampires evil?"

"Yeah," Ron said in a hushed voice, "Pretty much. I mean, most of them live in caves and would kill you as soon as look at you. I've heard that a few of them aren't half bad though, which is why the Ministry said we shouldn't actively hunt them anymore. I think if you come across one and it attacks you you're allowed to kill it in self-defense though."

Harry was very surprised to see Hermione march right up to the girl and ask her what it was like to be turned into one. As soon as she asked he realized that he was very curious himself. He was a little disappointed that she didn't remember. Then the ghosts came and he stared at them in amazement. This was just getting weirder and weirder.

000

They didn't pay much attention to us at first, but then a few spoke to us, and the Fat Friar, who I had also completely forgotten about, said that he hoped he saw some of us in Hufflepuff, his house. McGonagall came back and led us into the Great Hall. The rest of the first years were being amazed by everything they saw, but I had already seen it and besides I was too busy looking around fearfully to see if anybody in the Hall would notice that a vampire was in the midst of the first years. Thankfully, even the second year Slytherins, who would have been my classmates, didn't seem to notice me. In the meantime McGonagall had set up the Sorting Hat and it began to sing, which made me jump a little. Then it began its work. Bulstrode, Millicent was the first to be sent to Slytherin. I had to smile when Longbottom, Neville was chosen for Gryffindor and forgot to take the hat off his head before heading to the table, then having to run back and hand it to McGonagall. Malfoy was of course sent to Slytherin. Then finally Potter, Harry was called and he was sorted amid furious and excited whispers all over the Hall. I honestly wondered what the Hat would do with me, would I get sorted into Slytherin again? Or would I change Houses since I was a different person now? Thomas, Dean was called and sorted into Gryffindor.

Finally, Professor McGonagall said in her clear voice "Thorncrow, Esmira." That got the second years in Slytherin talking confusedly to each other.

I couldn't hear them from where I was, but I could imagine a few of them saying "What? She was with us, last year, she should be in our year!" I walked up to McGonagall but suddenly Headmaster Dumbledore stood up.

"I have an announcement to make," He said. "Esmira Thorncrow will be rejoining Slytherin as a first year." Then he abruptly sat down again. I have to admit that I felt a bit cheated. Now I would never find out what the Sorting Hat thought of me. I was also surprised that he hadn't offered any sort of explanation or said anything about my "condition." I scowled and walked over to the Slytherin table. The Bloody Baron was sitting with Draco on his right and an empty seat on his left.

I went up and sat in the empty seat, but then I turned to the Baron and said, "Can I trade seats with you?" The Baron looked down his nose at me, but he stood up and I took his seat.

I had done it to annoy Draco but I was surprised when he turned to me and whispered "Thanks." Apparently, he liked ghosts even less than he liked vampires.

"You're welcome." I whispered back. Weasley, Ron went to Gryffindor and the Zabini, Blaise was made a Slytherin and that was the end of the Sorting.

"Hi Esmira." I looked across the table at the girl sitting there.

"Hi," I said. "Do I know you?"

"What, you don't remember?"

"No, actually. I lost my memories and that's why I'm starting over."

"Oh, that's awful. I'm-" she was interrupted by Dumbledore, who gave his speech. After that she was too busy eating. I just sat there, utterly bored. I had "eaten" earlier this morning so I wasn't even remotely thirsty. Nobody spoke to me for the rest of the meal and I had no desire to start up a conversation with the Bloody Baron. I looked over and saw Harry, Ron, and Hermione laughing and eating. I wished I could be with them because they looked so happy. Then it was over. Dumbledore stood up and told everyone about the forest being forbidden, not to use magic in between classes in the halls, something about Quidditch, which I didn't pay attention to, and that the third floor corridor on the right hand side was off limits.

000

Harry was very relieved to be sorted into Gryffindor. Those Slytherins seemed like a nasty lot. Quite a few of them reminded him of Dudley. He turned to watch with interest as Esmira Thorncrow was called. After Dumbledore's announcement Harry saw her scowl and stomp to the Slytherin table. Poor girl, she obviously wasn't happy with the decision. Well, better her than him. He turned back to the Hat because Ron had just been called up and stopped paying attention to her.

Then the meal was summoned and all thoughts of her flew from Harry's mind. When the dessert came he felt like crying tears of joy. It was all so heavenly. Before he knew it, it was time to go and he and the others followed Percy.

000

We all followed the Slytherin prefect to the dungeons. Most of the students went straight to their dorms, being full and sleepy but a few sat in the common room. I sat there too, just for the heck of it, but nobody spoke to me. After a while I shrugged to myself and went to my bed to read. There were worse things than being ignored but I resolved to myself to figure out a way to sneak into the Gryffindor common room. I thought _first I'll try just sneaking in with a group of them after dinner tomorrow. Maybe I should have done that tonight actually, oh well._

(Meanwhile….)

Draco was writing a furious letter to his father. He still couldn't believe that they had let the filthy creature into the school. He had only said "Thanks" to her because he didn't want her to try and sink her fangs into his neck.

000

In the common room, as soon as the vampire left the older students started talking amongst themselves.

A boy with red hair said, "I heard her parents were murdered. Respectable family, I wonder if she offed them herself?"

"Don't be ridiculous John." Susan said. "The question is now, how can we use her?"

Leroy sniffed, "First we have to convince her that she has no choice other than to serve us. Creatures like her deserve to be slaves. She'd be suspicious by any show of befriending her so I say we skip straight to coercion. She's a vampire _and_ an orphan. We can threaten to make her life very, very miserable if she isn't obedient."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III: The First Few Days of School

AN: I'm changing the story rating to T because of this chapter. Also, this used to be a SI OC but now this is turning into more of just an OC, since I wouldn't act in the same way I am making my character act.

The next morning I didn't bother waiting for Millicent Bulstrode to wake up before leaving. It was probably the common thing to do to travel with your roommate places but I just didn't care to try to make friends with her. I put on my clothes, including my hat and my dragon hide gloves and strolled out of the room. It was very early in the morning, so the room was still dark.

I crossed the common room and was about to the door when an unfamiliar voice said, "Hey, wait a minute. Come here, I want to have a word with you." I turned and saw three older students. The same three that hadn't spoken to me last night in the common room. I raised an eyebrow, surprised that they were awake this early in the morning. _So now they're curious. Is that it?_

I walked to stand in front of them and asked "What is it?" Suddenly the red head and the girl grabbed my arms and stretched them to either side while forcing me to my knees. I struggled frantically to wrench my arms away but I wasn't strong enough. The other boy with the raven hair slapped me and I gasped.

"Stop struggling." He snarled.

"I'll scream." He hit me in the stomach and I nearly doubled over, my hat falling off at my feet. Now would be a good time to point out that it didn't actually hurt at all. Just like it hadn't hurt when Professor Snape had defended himself. Not that I was going to tell them that. I was just so surprised at what they were doing.

"Like anyone will care." He said coldly. "Now, from now on, you'll do everything we tell you to, is that clear? You have no friends and no chance of surviving unless we decide you get to."

I raised my head, my mouth set in a determined line. "Never." He slapped me again. My head rocked to the side.

"Hold her." He said curtly to the others and then left. He shortly returned, holding something behind his back. "Take off her gloves." He said. Then he grabbed some hair on the back of my head and forced my head back so that I was looking up. I renewed my struggles, beginning to smell something that made my nose burn. Then he brought forward a pouch and dumped a bunch of powder on my face. I screamed. I was on fire, the garlic was burning me. I felt him shake some onto each of my hands as well. It was then that I found out that I actually could cry after all.

"Look at that." The girl said with a voice full of wonder, as if they hadn't caused me any harm to get the result. "Tears of blood." I barely listened. So much pain, too much.

"Now," my tormentor said, kneeling in from of me, "You will do as I say if you value your life."

Then suddenly a voice spoke from behind me, "No Leroy, _you_ will do as _I_ say if you value _your_ life." Leroy looked up, shock on his face.

He stuttered, "P-Prof-Professor Snape. We- we were just teaching this creature-"

"Enough." Snape commanded. I closed my eyes in relief. "Leroy, Susan, John, 50 points from each of you for harming a fellow Slytherin. You will also all serve in detention. Let go of her." When they loosened their grip I collapsed, sniffing as blood was coming out of my nose now too. My face was on the floor and I opened my eyes as I raised myself with my arms, as if doing a push up, my arms shaking with the effort. An alarming number of droplets of blood were dripping onto the carpet from my face. I looked at my hands, drops of blood were forming there too, where the garlic had burned through my skin. I moaned in pain. Suddenly an arm encircled around my waist and gently assisted me to a standing position. Then my legs collapsed out from under me and I blacked out.

000

When Snape woke up that morning he hurriedly went and checked his pockets. _Oh no._ A feeling of dread filled him. He had meant to give Professor Quirrell the garlic that he had requested last night. The man was paranoid that a vampire from Romania was out to get him. Snape had extracted a promise from Quirrell that he wouldn't use the garlic on any students and Quirrell had reluctantly agreed. After the feast Snape had gone to his supply cabinet to get the garlic. Then he remembered that he was supposed to be in the Slytherin dorm room giving the first years a little speech. When he had gotten there it had been too late and most everyone had gone to bed. There were three students still up though who all jumped up and wanted to ask him about Esmira. He had carefully shut down their questions and left. After that encounter he had gone back to his rooms, exhausted and completely forgetting about delivering the garlic. _What if one of those students smelled it on me?_

Snape began to run for the Slytherin dorm room. What he encountered made him go cold. He could barely contain his rage as he handed out the punishments. Then Esmira had fainted. Others were coming out of their dorm rooms to investigate, having been woken up by the noise. He ordered them to go back to their rooms. He carried her to the infirmary. He set her down on one of the beds and saw that Madam Pomfrey was helping another patient. One of the new students, unused to the moving staircases, had lost their balance, tumbled down, and broken a leg. Madam Pomfrey directed him to where the blood packets were kept and Snape grabbed one. No doubt she would need to replenish her supply of blood.

When he reached her she was just beginning to stir and he sighed in relief. She opened her eyes as he reached her and he helped her into a sitting position while handing her the packet.

000

Draco woke up to the sound of screaming, it sounded like a girl. _An attack? Here?_ Anyone who messed with Slytherins deserved to pay. He jumped out of bed and grabbed his wand. It took him no time at all to reach the common room where he took it all in at once. The injured girl, held hostage, it was too dark to see who it was, no one had bothered to light the fire or anything. Just then Professor Snape was saying "50 points from each of you for harming a fellow Slytherin. You will also all serve in detention. Let go of her." Draco suddenly found himself furious, how dare they do this? He was no naïve boy, he knew all about backstabbing and putting someone out of commission, but that was all done with carefully placed words and money exchanging hands. This was just senseless. Add to that the fact that this was _only_ school, it wasn't like they were out in the real world yet where things mattered, Slytherins should stick together.

Other people were starting to come out of their rooms now too. Snape helped the girl up as Draco took a couple more steps forward to see who it was. She had had her eyes closed before but now they were open, two glowing spots of red. Draco gasped at the same moment that she collapsed against Snape. He could see his grip around her tighten reflexively to keep her from slumping to the floor. Then he had picked her up. It all happened so fast. Snape noticed Draco and the others watching and ordered them back to their rooms. Draco turned to go, but not before seeing Snape look down at her with a worried expression on his face.

He sat on his bed in a state of near shock. Did Snape feel sorry for her? She was only a creature. And yet…she _was_ also a Slytherin, something he hadn't really thought of before he wrote that letter to father. Not only that…creatures could be useful, house elves were useful after all. There was also the fact that when she had collapsed…she had seemed so helpless, so in need of rescue. Rescue….if only _he_ had been the one to rescue her, then she would be in his debt. Draco grinned, power and money weren't the only things in the world, he figured he would need to be a hero along the way to become the greatest wizard of this age, why not start now?

000

After I finished drinking I looked at Severus Snape, the man who had rescued me twice now. Once from the dangerous place that was the forbidden forest and once from the dangerous place that was the Slytherin dorms. "Thank you. Thank you. I don't know how I'll ever be able to repay you for all that you've done for me." Actually, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I wanted to save his life. I didn't know if it would be possible, but I wanted to try.

Snape, however, merely said after one or two heartbeats of silence, "Be careful for the rest of the day. Tonight I will address the House like I should have done yesterday. I will make it clear that no one is to attack you again." Then he left. After a while Madam Pomfrey came to check up on me, she bandaged my wounds and told me to not worry about going to classes for today, that she would send a note to my professors. I nodded gratefully. She told me to go ahead and go back to my rooms, since my bandages shouldn't need changing because the wounds weren't serious enough. I bristled a little at that because they certainly hurt a lot but then I calmed down, she had dealt with tons of students over however many years and I trusted that she knew what she was talking about. I left, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

When I got back to my room I started plotting. _Now, how will I get my revenge?_

000

The next day I was both excited for and dreading having Defense Against the Dark Arts with Quirrell. I had managed our first meeting just fine without showing any fear around him, but that had only been for a few minutes. I didn't know how I would hold up for a whole hour knowing that he was possessed by Voldemort himself. I steeled myself and walked through the classroom door and found myself walking right back out. My nose was burning from the smell of garlic. _I can do this. I need to do this. I can't let myself develop a fear of garlic, that would just be silly, even if it does cause me real pain. For that matter, I can't let pain stop me, I need to be stronger than that._ Despite my brave thoughts, I knew I was a weakling when it came to pain, I hated it and just wanted it to stop whenever I was experiencing it. However, I turned around and I went back in to the classroom. In a way, it ended up being a good thing, because I was too busy being annoyed at Quirrell to be afraid of him. I was pretty certain that he hadn't encountered both vampires and Voldemort and that the vampires were just a cover story. Either he really was scared of them, despite never having had a run in, or he was just being very thorough with his acting. Either way, I glared at him whenever he looked my way.

That night at dinner I took nine chocolate truffles from the dessert trays and put them in my pockets. Luckily they were wrapped prettily in wax paper so they wouldn't get dirty. My time over the Summer had not been idle after all, I had read a good deal of books on various spells and spent my nights practicing them in my room. I hurried from the table before everyone else had even started eating dessert and went to the dorms. I stopped in the common area and cast the same spell on all nine truffles. Now, how would I get the truffles into the correct rooms? Then I remembered the house elves. I cleared my throat and spoke to the air, "Hello? Is there a house elf here?" Complete silence. Apparently not.

000

Draco noticed the vampire leave early. He got up, when Crabbe and Goyle started to get up too he told them they could stay. He followed her at a safe distance and slipped in to the Slytherin common room as quietly as he could. He didn't recognize the spell she cast and he was even more surprised when she asked aloud if there was a house elf. He stepped forward, "What would you need with a house elf?" He asked, keeping his tone to one of polite enquiry, instead of the mocking tone he was so tempted to use.

000

I whirled around and eyed Draco with an equal mixture of surprise and wariness. Should I tell him? I really wanted to do this alone, but without the help of a house elf or a boy who had access to the boy's rooms, I wouldn't be able to get in. I supposed that Draco would be better than a house elf, because I couldn't remember if house elves were allowed to lie or not and I didn't want one of them telling on me. I took a deep breath and said, "Oh, it's simple. I want to get revenge on those who harmed me. I can deliver the truffles to Susan's room, but not to Leroy's and John's." I paused. Draco grinned, "Yeah, I can help you with that. Only, sometime in the future, if I ever need help with anything, you have to promise you'll help me." I frowned at that, I didn't like the idea of not knowing what I was promising to help with at all, but I said, "Okay." Draco paused, "What spell did you put on the truffles?" It was my turn to grin, and if my grin held a fair bit of malice I felt it was completely justified, "I merely made it so that those truffles taste like blood, and once they've tasted one bite, they'll be forced to eat all three of them." Draco looked impressed and scooped up six of the truffles to take to the boys' side of the dorm. I picked up the remaining three and put them on Susan's bed.

The next morning I went to breakfast, which I usually skipped in favor of reading, just so that I could see how those three would react. They all glared at me, but none of them approached me to say anything. I smiled and went about my day feeling very content.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter IV: The Potions Master

By the end of the first week I was so ready to see Harry and Co. again. The Slytherins arrived to Double Potions first and I lingered so that I was one of the last through the door. I did this in order to see which side of the room the Slytherins sat in. Then I deliberately went and sauntered to the Gryffindor side of the room and sprawled on a chair as if I didn't have a care in the world.

I heard someone remark, "What? Is she blind as well as being a monster?"

Draco asked, in a slightly aggravated tone, "What are you doing?"

I turned and gave what I hoped was a wicked grin, "I want to see if those Gryffindors are really as brave as everyone says they are. If they can't handle me then that must mean that they're a bunch of wimps." A few of the Slytherins even chuckled at that. Good.

When the Gryffindors arrived they were obviously surprised to see me sitting on their side of the room, a few noticeably chose seats far away from me. Then Potter, bless his heart, came and sat down right next to me. Ron, ever the loyal friend, sat down on Potter's other side while Hermione sat on my right.

I smiled and said to them, "You're braver than I thought," before giggling a bit, knowing that they wouldn't get the Star Wars reference. They smiled wide at the compliment but didn't get a chance to speak before Professor Snape came striding in. He raised an eyebrow when he saw where I was sitting, but of course he didn't say anything.

Snape called roll and when he got to Harry's name he said, "Ah, Mr. Potter….our new….celebrity." The way he said it, he managed to make the word "celebrity" sound more like "scumbag." I hid a smile behind my hand because it was rather funny. Then he started interrogating Harry. I knew all of the answers from my studies, but I wasn't stupid enough to raise my hand like Hermione. Snape didn't want the answers, he just wanted to humiliate Harry. On the second question I nudged Hermione and glared at her. She quailed and lowered her hand, confused. I hoped I would get the chance to tell her later.

Harry, exasperated, said, "I don't know sir, why don't you try asking someone else if you want answers so badly?" A few students chuckled and Snape took a point away from Gryffindor because of Harry's snark. Then he instructed us in the making of a potion to cure boils. Hermione and I were paired together and we worked quickly, I wanted to tell her right then and there why I had stopped her from raising her hand, but with Snape in the room I didn't dare. While Hermione was taking a turn stirring I looked around to see how everyone else was doing, Seamus and Neville caught my eye. I suddenly had a vague memory come to me of Seamus with a blackened face, at least I think it was Seamus. In any event, my eyes refocused as I came back to the present just in time to see Neville add the porcupine quills with the cauldron still on the fire.

"Watch out!" I screamed and flung myself at Neville, pulling him out of the way, then moving towards Seamus while shouting "Everyone get off of the floor!" I got to Seamus just in time to push him out of the way before being drenched by the boiling liquid. Greenish steam filled the air as I sank to the floor. I was suddenly so, so tired.

I heard Snape snarling "Idiot boy! Look what you've done." Then Potter lost another House point for not having told Neville not to. I lay down in the pool of liquid and closed my eyes, finding relief, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep.

The steam must have cleared because I heard someone gasp and say "Oh no, look at Esmira."

I heard Snape's sharp voice immediately command "Don't touch her, she's covered in the potion. Any normal person would be covered in boils right now."

I yawned and opened my eyes, "m'just tired." I mumbled, before closing them again.

"There will be no sleeping in this class. Get up, Esmira." I had been a naturally obedient person in my life before this so I automatically opened my eyes and got up and _then_ started thinking how I didn't want to obey. I pensively looked at Professor Snape and yawned again.

Snape stared at me, then announced, "50 points to Slytherin because Esmira's actions saved Neville and Seamus a trip to the hospital wing. And may I say Esmira, that you are extremely lucky that the potion didn't do you any harm." Then he turned swiftly away as the Slytherin half of the room broke into cheers. It was a good thing none of them could see my face because I was not happy about the fact that my actions had gained back 50 of the points that Snape had taken away from Susan, John, and Leroy.

"I didn't do it for Slytherin." I muttered and saw Snape pause just a fraction before continuing. Dang it, I hadn't meant for him to hear, I hadn't really meant to say it out loud, it had just slipped out. I looked around and saw Neville and Seamus looking at me curiously. Well, I didn't mind if they had heard me. Snape then assigned Neville and Seamus to clean up the mess, carefully.

I raised my hand "Yes, Esmira?"

"Permission to go change sir?"

"Permission granted." I left, stopped by a bathroom to wash my hands and face with cold water, which helped me perk up immensely, then went to the dormitory and got changed. I returned to the classroom about fifteen minutes after I had left it and saw that Neville and Seamus had made good progress, though they weren't done yet. I briefly thought about asking Snape if I could help them, since there was no real danger to me, but then I decided against it. Not only would he probably refuse, since it was their problem and they needed to deal with it, it would also be strange for me to go out of my way to be nice to the Gryffindors and would likely make me some enemies again among the Slytherins. I probably still had some enemies, though hopefully not as many.

I headed toward Hermione and looked at our cauldron before nodding and saying "Good job at keeping it going alright."

Hermione looked at me and said, "That's all you have to say? You should be in Gryffindor after a stunt like that!"

I looked to my right, we were quite close to the Slytherin side and I couldn't risk voicing what I wanted to say, which was, "Maybe I should have been in Gryffindor," and instead settled on saying "My ambitions lie elsewhere," while catching Draco's eye. As soon as I said it I realized that it was just as true as what I wanted to say, even though maybe I "should" be in Gryffindor, I didn't need to be in order to accomplish what I aimed to.

Hermione followed my gaze and then looked at me incredulously, "You have a thing for Draco?" Her voice went very shrill on the last word. "He's so awful."

"Not necessarily." I replied, and left her to puzzle out if I meant that he wasn't necessarily awful or if I wasn't necessarily interested in him.

At dinner I overheard other students talking that news had just come out that Gringott's had been broken into a few months ago and I cast a sharp glance at Professor Quirrell. He seemed no more or less anxious than usual but I wondered if Voldemort would punish him tonight at this fresh reminder of his failure. I immediately left the table to go outside to the hall, this time looking all around to make certain no one was following me. By now everyone knew that I only came to dinner to have a bit of human company and I often left at varying times in the middle of the meal or dessert so it wouldn't be odd that I was leaving now. Once in the hall I cast the disillusionment charm on myself and waited until someone else exited before slipping inside while the door was still open. Then I paused near the doorway, wondering where to go, any adept Slytherin, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Gryffindor might see through the charm as well as any of the professors, so I didn't want to go too near the head table. I decided I also didn't want to go near the Slytherin table, since the other students had little to no loyalty to me and probably wouldn't mind snitching me out if they spotted me. Going near or around the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables was out of the question since they were in the middle of the floor and there were too many possibilities of a student standing up and bumping into me. I decided that Gryffindor was my safest bet, if Fred or George spotted me they might even give me a few tips next time. My only hope for not being spotted by Quirrell was that he would be too preoccupied by his worries over Voldemort to notice me.

I went three quarters of the way up the hall by the wall next to the Gryffindor table. Finally, Quirrell stood up to leave and I followed him. As he walked briskly, turning down this hallway and that I realized that I had no idea where his room was, that would also be useful to know. I bumped into him. To my horror I realized that I had been concentrating so hard on moving my legs fast enough to keep up with him that I hadn't realized he had abruptly stopped.

He whirled, pointed a wand in my direction and stammered, "F-finite incantatem!" He looked astonished to see me, though of course he might have looked that way regardless of whatever student stood before him, on account of his acting.

Before he had a chance to speak I did a quick obvious looking him up and down and then I practically purred in a smooth voice "You're good."

"W-wha-what did you ex-expect? Tha-that I couldn't ca-cast a spell after m-my encounter with v-vampires?"

"No, no, not that." I said, "You're acting. Its superb. I can sense fear you know." An utter lie. "And I can tell, that you, Professor Quirrell, are not afraid….of me." Quirrell literally recoiled from me and I ran away, having no idea where I was going. Dash, this had gotten out of hand, dash my desire to impress others, I hadn't planned to say that, I had probably put too much attention on myself by saying that.

At least I hadn't followed that up with the threat that just popped into my mind "Sooner or later Professor, you will have to tell people what you are afraid of, because I will make certain that they know that it isn't vampires." Yes, if I had said that it might have been disastrous. _Never let your enemy know that you know what they don't want you to know._ I berated myself. Eventually I stopped running, having deemed that I was far away enough from Quirrell, then I wandered around trying to find my way back. It was already evening and it seemed that in my bad luck all of the paintings I came across were the "early to bed" type of folk. The staircases changed, I swear some of the doors I tried led me to places I had already been, and I quickly realized that venturing out of the main, well-known areas of the castle was a big mistake. Added to that the fact that although Hogwarts would have been plenty big anyway, it was bigger on the inside than it appeared to be on the outside. Truly, it was a marvel of magic.

Wandering around can get very dull very quickly, especially when you just want to get to your destination and you aren't exploring on purpose. By the time, what I reckoned to be four hours, had past I began to wonder if the castle had something against vampires and that I was mis-registering in its sensors as something that it needed to keep trapped and lost. I had already gone through an emotional cycle by that point of annoyance, frustration, anger, despair, and sadness. After about another hour I sat down, wondering if the rule that states "if you are lost, stay put" applied in a castle that was always moving in some way, but I was convinced that the castle was working against me and that I would never find my way out of this part of it. Then I started to count.

Seven hours, twenty-eight minutes, forty-five seconds later Snape and Quirrell found me. "What are you doing just sitting there Miss Thorncrow?" Snape said in a dangerously soft voice.

I stood up saying, "I think that the castle thinks that I am an enemy."

That brought him up short, I don't know what lecture he was planning on giving me, but instead he asked curiously, "What makes you think that?" I explained, reluctantly since Quirrell was there, how many hours I had been trying to find my way back to the parts of the castle that I knew. "Well…" Snape finally drawled, "that would certainly be an astonishingly obvious lie to make, seeing as how this morning we started searching for you only ten minutes ago and have already found you, so I am inclined to believe that you are telling the truth." He continued, "Instead of the detention that I was going to give you for following Professor Quirrell around unsolicited, and he and I would like to know why you were doing so, I would like Headmaster Dumbledore and I to observe you trying to leave this part of the castle. I would also like to know why you ran away from the good Professor here."

I had had plenty of time to prepare an answer during my wanderings so I said, "I was curious." I looked down and shuffled my feet, affecting embarrassment, "I was curious to know whether or not Professor Quirrell would have garlic in his personal quarters like he does in his classroom, since he's afraid of me."

"Y-yo-you said y-you could se-sense I wasn't a-afraid of y-you last night." He stammered.

I looked up "I lied. I can't sense fear. I was just saying nonsense in the hopes that you'd forget to punish me."

"Why did you run?" Snape interjected.

"I was afraid." I said truthfully. Afraid that I would say too much. They took it to mean I was afraid of Quirrell and looked at me in disbelief, I could practically hear Snape's thoughts, _nobody could be afraid of Quirrell_ , and Quirrell's were probably something along the lines of _A vampire? Afraid of me?_ which was perhaps why Quirrell, in a moment of weakness, broke character long enough to give a real laugh before managing to turn it into a nervous simpering chuckle.

"W-well y-you don't need m-me anymore Prof-Professor. Good-goodbye." He said, extricating himself from the situation.

"Wait here Esmira, I'll send a student to let you know when to start to try to leave." About twenty minutes later Draco came with a curious look on his face.

He puffed out his chest and said proudly, "Professor Snape sent me to tell you they're ready." Then he stood there, expectantly.

I smiled apologetically, "I don't think it will work if you're here. I'm in the middle of an experiment, so I think you need to go now. I'll tell you later." He looked disappointed but left without saying anything. I counted to five, and then tried to follow him. I turned the corner that he had turned, it was a dead end. I stared, dumbfounded, that was just too cruel. I went and beat my hands against the walls and tried to find a secret passage that would let me out, but it was no use. Then I turned around and did a lot of what I'd been doing, wandering aimlessly, taking stairs, opening doors, and generally not going anywhere. After a half an hour I figured it had been long enough so I sat down again and waited. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape arrived some time later.

Dumbledore began, "This is most serious indeed. You have been adopted by the school, but the castle does not recognize you as a student even. We saw everything, judging that you could not follow Draco out I am not certain you would be able to follow us out. Take my hand, child."

So I took it, and asked, "How did you see everything?" Keeping a firm hold on my hand, we started walking.

"Oh, in my office, I'll show you."

We arrived in what seemed no time at all. Dumbledore had already let go of my hand. The three of us were soon standing in front of a model of the castle floorplan. As we looked at it a few of the miniature stairs moved.

"Amazing," I said, "but there are no miniature people, how did you know where I was?" Severus answered, "You have to know the name of the person you are looking for, and you say it."

"May I try?" I asked.

"You may." Dumbledore replied.

I thought of the Marauder's Map, which gave me an idea, and I said clearly, distinctly, and a little loudly "Peter Pettigrew." A light appeared in the Gryffindor dorm room.

"Impossible." Severus said at once, "he's dead."

"I have never known the model to make a mistake." Dumbledore replied, looking troubled. "Whatever gave you the idea to say that name?"

"Well…" I floundered, "I just read about him….and I wondered who Ron's rat really was."

"What do you mean by that?" Dumbledore asked.

I lied again, in the spur of the moment I couldn't think of any other reason I might suspect. "Blood never lies, I was very confused to smell that Ron's rat has the blood of a human and not an animal." Goodness, I hoped they bought it, I didn't even know if that was medically correct. "I began to wonder if Scabbers is an animagus." For another thing, I'd hardly spoken to Ron and had never seen him with his rat, so by all rights I shouldn't even know the name Scabbers. I hoped that they wouldn't pick up on that fact either. I plowed on, "Since he is Peter Pettigrew, what is he hiding from? Justice? We'd better be careful catching him so he doesn't escape. If Peter Pettigrew isn't dead then that means that Sirius Black didn't murder him. Black was framed."

A light went on in Dumbledore's eyes. "Yes, yes I can see the sense in that. This is serious. Like you said, we must proceed carefully." He turned to Snape. "Can you ask all the students with rats to come to you and then seemingly find something wrong with Scabbers which requires you to isolate him and make a potion for him? Maybe find something wrong with one or two other rats as well so that he doesn't get suspicious? I will contact the Aurors. I believe this is serious enough for them to deal with."

I couldn't resist jumping up and down and clapping my hands together, finally I was making a difference! This discovery wasn't supposed to happen for two years. I wondered what the consequences would be.

A/N: For those wondering, the Harry Potter Lexicon website says that curfew for students begins at 9 pm, so I'm guessing that dinner ends at 8 pm. Esmira tries to find her way out for five hours, so she sits down at 1 a.m. She is found 7 hours later at 8 a.m. The website says that classes begin at 9 so I am guessing that breakfast begins at 7:45 and ends at 8:45 a.m.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter V: The Arrest

The plan worked smoothly. A very confused Ron and a handful of other students brought their rats to Snape, who cast a diagnostic spell on them and declared five in need of a restorative potion in order to "boost their immune systems, rejuvenate their energy levels, and elevate their quality of life." While in the midst of making the potion four Aurors arrived, two of them headed to where Snape was and performed the counter-spell on the sleeping animagus. Pettigrew woke up, but was too groggy and confused to react before the Aurors had him in magical irons to prevent him from changing back. They broke him within the first hour of custody, he confessed to everything. Meanwhile Ron was having a hard time believing that Scabbers wasn't just a normal rat. I wasn't present for any of this, I would learn of it later.

I had forgotten what affect I had on people who were seeing me for the first time. When the Aurors arrived, I was standing behind Dumbledore and the first Auror who spotted me got the most alarmed look on his face as he raised his wand. _Uh oh._ I jumped back, and collided with a chair, falling backwards as a spell raced over my head.

Dumbledore yelled "Stop! That's Minerva! I mean Esmira! That's Esmira Thorncrow!" He continued in a more normal tone of voice as I picked myself up off the floor. "Surely you've heard of her? From her parents' murder. She's the orphan the school adopted."

As two of the Aurors left the one who had nearly jinxed me said coolly, "That is most fortunate that we do not have to go looking for her too. Lucius Malfoy sent us a letter asking us to investigate as to whether or not there really was a vampire student at the school. I'm afraid she'll have to come with us. Was she a vampire already when the school adopted her?"

"Yes, but-"

"The Ministry is going to be very interested to learn that you failed to include the fact that she is a vampire when you applied for her adoption."

"Surely you aren't going to arrest her!"

The Auror shot him a withering glance, "No, we aren't arresting her. Merely…taking her into custody for a little while, while we get everything sorted out."

"That's the same thing!" I burst out in horror. "You have no right to arrest me or take me into custody. I haven't done anything wrong!"

"Really?" He shot back "You haven't ever attacked anyone have you?"

I froze, but before I could admit my guilt a smooth voice said from behind me "No, she hasn't." I turned, disbelieving, to see Severus striding forward with the two other Aurors and Peter Pettigrew in toe. "We've been monitoring her most carefully since we found her and if it weren't for her we would never have found out about Pettigrew here. I suggest you use your time wisely interrogating those who actually... need it." He sneered the last two words and gave a pointed look at Peter.

The Auror drew himself up to his full height and said, "This won't be the last you hear about this. C'mon, let's go."

So, they left, just like that. I collapsed into a chair, shaking.

Dumbledore came and said to me "He was fishing for a legitimate reason to take you, or if he could have he would have taken you and _then_ found a reason for it. I imagine that Lucius bribed that one along with the letter. Aurors are supposed to be above such things of course, but when an owl unexpectedly arrives with gold galleons it is harder to send money back than to not accept it in the first place. I doubt there will be much more trouble about it my dear, don't you worry. Peter Pettigrew will be a fine enough feather in that Auror's cap." I nodded and breathed deeply, trying to calm myself.

I turned to Severus, "Why-"

"Best not to discuss it." He interrupted. "Let's go. I came to get you to help me convince Ron I haven't murdered his rat and hidden the body."

A laugh escaped me. "Gladly, Professor." On the way we passed Draco in the hall.

I stopped and glared, "Don't think I'm going to tell you about the experiment I was in now after what your father did." Then Snape and I swept passed him.

000

Draco had been having a very nice Saturday until a certain vampire's glowing red eyes stopped him in his tracks. Draco paled, he hadn't received a response to his letter. He wondered what his father had done. He had been expecting advice from his father, not action! Before he could say a word though she had moved on. He wasn't about to ask his father what he had done though. Lucius Malfoy expected him to just know things, whenever he'd had questions growing up they had often been met with "Don't you know this already? Oh, very well…" or "You should learn how to find things out without asking questions. Since you've asked though…." He had quickly developed a preference for asking his mother things, but she didn't know everything. Now what was he going to do? Everyone else in his class was so dull and boring and already more than willing to practically worship him, Esmira was the only interesting one who didn't just follow him around. He liked that, but it was also infuriating. How was he going to get her to pay attention to him now?

000

Ron had been having a very miserable Saturday ever since everyone else's rats had been returned to them except for his. "I bet Snape murdered Scabbers and has just hidden his body away somewhere." He said to Harry as they sat in the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Don't be ridiculous Ron." Hermione said primly. "Snape might be a Slytherin and a horrible Professor but I don't think he'd go quite that far."

"Thank you for that _astounding_ vote of confidence Miss Granger." All three of the children jumped as they noticed that Snape, and Esmira had entered the room.

Ron leapt to his feet, his hands curled into fists "Slytherins! In the Gryffindor Common Room, why I'll-"

"Do absolutely nothing Mister Weasley" McGonagall had come in right after Snape and Esmira. "I invited them here. Now, you'll hear what they have to say." Harry moved to stand by Ron and nodded at him in support.

Snape began, "Your rat is actually an animagus and-"

"That's absolute rot!" Ron yelled, his face turning crimson. "You just want to take him away from me!"

"Ron, Ron." Harry shook his friend in the shoulder. "What's an animagus?" Ron turned to Harry, calming down a little at having to answer a perfectly easy question, "A person who can turn into an animal. I don't believe it, there's just no way that Scabber is one."

Esmira spoke up. "How long has your family had Scabbers, Ron?"

Ron looked a little surprised at the question but said "About ten years, why?"

"Don't you think it's more than a little odd that he has lived for so long? I think rats generally only live for about three years. If he was just a rat and not an animagus, he'd have died a long time ago."

"You're just saying things." Ron said feebly, deflated.

McGonagall said, "Mister Weasley, your rat is someone named Peter Pettigrew, you've likely heard of him." Ron nodded glumly. "Well then. I'm certain you'll want to owl your parents. You can use one of the school owls for free for this, if you so desire." Ron just nodded again.

"Who's Peter Pettigrew?" Harry asked.

"A friend of your parents." McGonagall answered. "Along with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. We can talk more about them later. Right now, I need to go and alert the owlery that Ron will be needing an owl."

000

As soon as Professor McGonagall said "Remus Lupin" I mentally facepalmed, remembering that I had thought his last name was Lupus. Ah well. We left soon after that.

Just before exiting, I turned back and said, "Sorry about your rat Ron." Then I continued out the door. I didn't run into them for the next few days. On Thursday we had flying lessons together. I wasn't looking forward to it, since I'm afraid of heights. Also, being outside, in the direct sunlight. No, I wasn't looking forward to it _at all_. I thought I had best try the class at least once, but even before we all stepped outside I wondered hopefully if I might be excluded from these lessons in the future. I had on my witch's hat and my dragonhide gloves, which helped, but I still felt instantly tired as we walked across the lawn.

There were about twenty broomsticks laid out, the Gryffindors and Madam Hooch were nowhere in sight, so I sat down and began plucking a few blades of grass. As I yawned and tried to keep my eyes open the Gryffindors and Madam Hooch arrived at nearly the same moment.

I stood and quickly followed her instructions, to my glee, my broomstick didn't so much as twitch when I commanded "Up!" Even after Neville had finally gotten his off the ground mine hadn't so much as rolled over. Finally, Madam Hooch had me step aside to keep trying as she instructed the others how to get on properly. Draco was not happy to learn that he had been doing it wrong for years. Then, as Madam Hooch got out her whistle, I remembered about Neville falling. Even though we wouldn't learn it until next year, I already knew the spell Arresto Momentum thanks to being unable to sleep and spending my nights studying. Unfortunately, even though I knew it was going to happen, it all happened so fast. Before Madam Hooch had a chance to blow her whistle, Neville was already in the air, and before I had a chance to extricate my wand from the cavernous pockets of my robe he had already hit the ground with a crash. I winced, the sunlight had slowed me down even further, but maybe if my wand hadn't been in my pockets I could have made it in time. I resolved to myself that I really needed to make myself some sort of wand holder, maybe on my wrist. I wondered if a watch would do for the time being, but I didn't own one, and I doubted it would work to keep it in place anyway. Madam Hooch commanded everyone not to move and threatened us with expulsion if we did get on our brooms as she took Neville to the hospital wing.

Draco started to laugh as soon as they were out of sight. "Did you see the look on his face?" I lost my temper, I was already irritated at not having been fast enough to save Neville. I darted behind Draco, grabbed one of his arms and pulled it behind his back, then I laid my fangs on his neck for a moment before lifting them.

"I imagine it looked something like yours does right now Draco." I said silkily, "Would you like me to break your wrist so that you can find out how Neville feels?"

Harry said alarmed, "No need to do that!"

I looked up at him, "Shut up, Potter." Harry looked like he'd been slapped. "Now," I said to Draco "Slytherins are certainly superior to others in a lot of ways…" I twisted his arm a little and he whimpered, "but pain is something that you should _never_ take lightly, even when the person experiencing it isn't you, even when the person experiencing the pain is someone that you view as beneath you." I let go of his arm.

He turned around and punched me in the face. I fell to the ground while thinking _maybe I did deserve that_. I landed on something. I pulled it out from under me, Neville's remembrall. The smoke turned bright red.

"I see you've forgotten something Esmira." Draco practically spat. "I'll tell you what it is. Nobody crosses a Malfoy and gets away with it." He hauled me up by the front of my robes and before I or anybody knew what he was doing I was seated in front of him in midair hanging on for dear life. My hat flew off as we climbed higher and higher, much higher than Neville.

I frantically shouted "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I shouldn't have done that!" We immediately slowed down. I think that was all Draco had been looking for, to scare me like I'd scared him, but then Harry had to come and ruin it.

"Stop!" I heard Harry shouting. Then Malfoy swerved to face him…and I fell off. The remembrall flew from my fingers as I thought _This is it. I don't think even a vampire could survive falling from this height._ Draco dived after me. I didn't know if he would make it in time, or what he would do even if he did reach me. I shut my eyes, I didn't want to see the horrified look on Draco's face any longer. I wanted to block everything out. Then I hit something solid, my fall slowed considerably, but I fell a few seconds longer before I was bouncing and tumbling along, before finally coming to a stop. It was very confusing, I opened my eyes to see Draco on his back beside me, breathing heavily.

"Draco! Are you alright? You saved me!" I don't know what came over me but I kissed him on the forehead. Then I started to cry. Draco's stunned look turned to one of disgust at seeing the tears of blood, but then he got the stunned look on his face again as he sat up gingerly.

"Yeah, I did. I did save you. I'm a hero!" By now Slytherins and Gryffindors alike had come running up to us.

Pansy Parkinson cheered "The Hero of Slytherin!" which set the other Slytherins to chanting "The Hero of Slytherin!"

"DRACO MALFOY!" Professor McGonagall was running toward them. "Never in all my time-" McGonagall was almost speechless with shock. "Malfoy, you are coming with me. You too Thorncrow." We both shakily got to our feet and followed McGonagall, as Harry touched down, clutching the remembrall in his hand, nobody paid him much attention except Hermione, Parvati, and Ron. McGonagall marched speedily to the castle as Draco and I struggled to keep up. I was still crying from the shock and I noticed Draco quickly swiping a hand across his eyes too. We could still hear the others chanting behind us "The Hero of Slytherin!" as we entered the castle.

Minerva led us to the dungeons and pounded on the Potions classroom door.

The door opened a crack and we could hear Snape's annoyed voice say "What is it? You better have a good reason for interrupting my class." Then the door opened wider and Snape caught sight of us. I'm certain we both looked wretched. "Oh." Snape said, "One moment." We could hear his muffled voice giving instructions and then he stepped out into the hallway. "What happened?" He snapped.

"Well," McGonagall said breathlessly "Your students nearly went and got themselves killed is what happened. I have never in all my life seen such a flagrant disregard for the rules. Madam Hooch caught me in the hallway and told me she had instructed the students not to use their brooms while she was gone and could I check up on them? I stepped outside to see Esmira fall off of Malfoy's broomstick, while Potter was hit in the chest by something and he nearly fell off himself, but luckily he didn't. Then Draco performed the most outrageous dive to break Esmira's fall, which….worked…." McGonagall trailed off before finishing "…they could have died! They must be punished. In fact, 10 house points from the both of you." That was, perhaps, a bit much, since Snape was standing right there.

"Why were you flying when Madam Hooch told you not to?" Snape asked.

"I'm terrified of heights." I blurted out, before burying my face in my hands.

"The remembrall…" was all Draco said before trailing off.

I uncovered my face, "Draco saved me. He saved me from falling. If he hadn't acted quickly… his dive, so spectacular." A note of awe crept into my voice. Snape saw that he wouldn't be getting anything coherent out of us for a while.

He looked at McGonagall "You said that Potter was on his broom too?" She nodded. Snape said, "Detention. For all three of them. You'll serve it in my office after classes today." McGonagall started to protest, but Snape interrupted "Speaking of class, I really need to get back to teaching mine. I trust you'll inform Potter." Then he was gone. McGonagall glared at the closed door for a bit before she led us to Madam Pomfrey. She left us to be checked over for any injuries and by the time we were done we figured there wasn't much time left in class. I didn't want to go back because of the sunlight and I don't know why Draco didn't want to go back but I could tell just by looking at him that he'd rather skip out on the rest of class too.

Right outside the infirmary I said to him, "Why don't we walk slooowly to class? That way if anyone asked what we're doing we can truthfully say that we are headed back to class."

"Good plan." He said. So we did, by the time we got out of the castle we saw the other students headed toward us, signaling the end of class. Perfect. We had even shared one shy smile on our way out, well, I couldn't stop grinning at not having to try to get on a broomstick again today and Draco had given me a small smile one of the times he looked my way.

Then Madam Hooch saw us, "One moment please! I've already been told that you have detention by Professor McGonagall otherwise I would assign it myself. However, Esmira, I want you to take this note to Professor Snape, I want you to serve detention with me to see if we can try to get any of the brooms to work with you. I've already set aside the one you tried today so you won't repeat it." If I could have paled any more than I was then I would have.

"Yes Madam Hooch." I said. I took the note and left. I didn't want to interrupt Snape's class again but I also didn't want to be late to my next class. I dithered about in the hallway outside the Potions classroom for an agonizing ten minutes before I remembered. My next class was with Professor Binns so he probably wouldn't even notice if I came in late. I relaxed and settled against the wall to wait. It wasn't too much longer before students began filing out of the classroom. As the last one left I slipped in, Severus was at his desk cleaning up.

"Excuse me Professor Snape." He looked up. "I have a note for you" I said, while walking forward. I handed him the note and scrunched my shoulders up while he read, hoping he'd insist I have detention with him.

"Alright then." He said, signing the note. I looked at him and sighed, obviously he wasn't going to get me out of this one. Then he said, "First you were immune to that potion, then the castle treats you like an enemy, and now potentially you can't fly. You are a walking research project Esmira."

"I'm glad you find me so interesting." I muttered sarcastically, not in the mood to be pleased.

"I'm offering you a suggestion. You might want to consider writing all this down and publishing it. It might earn you a bit of income."

"Oh." I said, mollified. "I think I'd want to wait a bit longer though," I continued thoughtfully, "three interesting things isn't much of a paper." He handed me the note and I left for my next class.

When classes ended I tried all twenty brooms over the course of an hour using varying degrees of forcefulness in the command "Up," just like Hermione had done in the movie. None of them worked. At the end of the hour Madam Hooch admitted defeat and wrote a rather long note for me to take to Professor Dumbledore. I went to dinner and marched up to the head table. I wasn't certain about protocol so I didn't go behind the table but stopped across from Dumbledore and somewhat awkwardly stretched my arm across the table to give him the note. I couldn't reach very far so he had to stand up to take it from me, his eyes twinkling.

His brow furrowed as he read the note "Ah, I see. I shall have to think on this. Come see me in my office tomorrow after dinner. Your Head of House will come with you, to let you in to my office and to discuss this over."

"Yes sir." I said and left the hall. My time in the sun had drained my strength considerably. I just wanted to find a dark corner somewhere and curl up. There would be a fire in the Slytherin Common Room and I didn't want to face even that. So I went to the potions classroom, the darkest classroom I could think of. The door was locked, but an Alohamora opened it. I shut the door behind me and crawled underneath Snape's desk, finding relief. I must have entered a state of near sleep, because I didn't realize how much time had passed when I became aware of someone shaking me. I became alert to the horribly grinning face of Filch.

"So you're one of the students who is out of bed at midnight. Up you get. Professor Snape will hear about this in the morning. Where are the others?" I looked at him confused.

"I'm alone." I mumbled.

"Well, nevermind. I'll get it out of you tomorrow." I didn't even bother responding to that, so I just followed him as he escorted me to the Slytherin Common Room and then went inside to my room.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: I just started another semester of my Master's program, so I probably won't be able to update very frequently for the next little while, but I'm not abandoning this story!

Chapter VI: Halloween

The next morning, Friday morning, saw me in the Slytherin Common Room, anticipating Professor Snape's arrival with Filch. A few minutes later we were in Snape's office.

Filch spoke, "I found her in the Potions classroom after being led on a merry chase by a couple of students out of bed. She won't tell me who the other students were."

"Explain what you were doing in the Potion's classroom Miss Thorncrow." Snape said in that imperious voice of his.

"I wanted to get away from the light. I had been in direct sunlight for a good hour and a half yesterday and my first instinct was to go somewhere very dark." I paused, then added glaring at Filch "I don't know about any other students out of bed. I just wanted some peace and quiet away from the light."

Filch grunted in disbelief, then looked at Snape.

Snape said, "Even with your special condition Miss Thorncrow, I don't think we can make any special allowances for students out of bed, you'll serve detention in my office after classes today."

I frowned, "Yes sir."

"You are dismissed." I went to the Great Hall and looked for Draco. Once I spotted him I headed over and tapped him on the shoulder, since the two seats beside him were filled by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Hey." I said. "How was detention with Professor Snape yesterday?" He cast an annoyed glance at me and a quick one at Crabbe and Goyle but when he saw they were busy eating and not paying attention his face cleared.

"Boring mostly, you're lucky you didn't have to serve it."

"Well, I have to serve detention with him today."

"What? Why? I thought you serving it with Madam Hooch covered it."

"It did. Except I was out of bed last night and someone told Filch that there were students out of bed and I got caught." Draco wasn't yet schooled enough at hiding his emotions from his face because he looked sheepish so I pounced "Oh, it was you? Whatever for? I'm guessing there were other students out of bed because I didn't think anybody would notice if I was missing, well, some of the girls might but anyway who else was out of bed?"

Draco said, "Potter and Weasley that I know of, I was trying to get them into trouble but it seems it didn't work. I left a note in Filch's office saying that I knew some students were going to be out of bed but I didn't say who in the note because well, it made sense at the time, but I thought if I did, he'd be less likely to believe the note and not go searching at all."

"That's okay." I said, "I'll let you get back to your breakfast." I wandered over to the center of the Hall where I had a better view of the Gryffindor table and I saw Ron and Harry talking but Hermione seemed to be giving them the silent treatment in favor of talking to…Neville? Neville looked worried and a bit scared. What had happened? How had Draco known they were going to be out of bed? I had forgotten to ask. I'd ask Draco later about how he knew and as for finding out what had happened to the Gryffindors, maybe it was time I finally told Hermione why I had stopped her from raising her hand that first day of Potions. So I went and tapped Hermione on the shoulder to get her attention.

"What?" She said.

"Can you spare a moment?" I asked, while tilting my head a bit to the side and pointing with my chin to show that I wanted to talk to her over by a random tapestry, alone.

"Alright." She stood up and we walked to the tapestry.

I began, "I've been meaning to tell you. That first day in Potions, I'm sorry I glared at you, I just couldn't think of any other way in that moment to stop you from raising your hand without saying anything to you. I've lived at the castle for quite some time now, so I've gotten to know Professor Snape, and I could tell that he wasn't really looking for the answers to those questions. I don't know why, but I think that he does dislike Harry for some reason, so I was concerned that you raising your hand would somehow make it worse for Harry, and I do want to be your friend. I think you're really smart and you've been a good partner to have in potions. Also…." I looked down, "I'm not friends with any of the Slytherin girls, a few of them have been nice, the ones in second year that knew me before I became a vampire, but I can tell they also find it awkward to be around me, that they're comparing me to how I used to be, a me that I don't even remember. I'd like to be your friend, if you don't mind that I'm in Slytherin." I paused and looked up.

Hermione looked stunned, "I-I'm sorry." She stuttered, "It's just that I never would have thought to receive an offer of friendship from a Slytherin. You're different from them though aren't you? Seamus and Neville whispered to the other Gryffindors after you had left that you said that you didn't do it for Slytherin. You're also the same in some ways though, you were rather mean to Draco, but then again, I guess he was mean first, not that it makes it right what you did. I-okay, I was just doing my thinking out loud for a bit, sorry. I think I could be your friend, maybe…"

"That's good enough for me for now." I said hurriedly. Then, as if I had just remembered something, I said, "Oh, and….when I was walking over to come talk with you, I couldn't help but notice that you seemed to be giving Harry and Ron a bit of a cold shoulder. Did something happen last night? It's just that, Filch caught me out of bed last night because he'd been looking for some other students. That wouldn't have happened to be them would it?"

"Well…maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. Sorry, I just don't know you well enough just yet."

I was disappointed that she wouldn't tell me, but at the same time I nodded and said, "I understand. Well, I'll let you get back to your meal. If anyone from Slytherin asks why we were talking, can you just say we were talking about Potions? You can tell anyone from Gryffindor the truth of course."

"Okay."

Then I left to go to the Slytherin Common Room to gather my books for classes. I didn't end up speaking to Draco again all that day and before I knew it I was in detention with Snape. To my surprise I wasn't the only one there, there were two Ravenclaws as well. Snape just set us to writing the same sentence one hundred times, "I will not break the rules at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." The other students wrote furiously, having to pause now and then to rest their hands when they got cramped. At first I wrote more slowly and with every sentence I tried to do a different handwriting style for fun, then when I was about thirty sentences in I saw that I was taking forever and that I had run out of unique styles that I could think of so I just switched to my handwriting and picked up the pace at which I was writing. All in all, it was pretty boring, like Draco said.

The two Ravenclaw's left before I did and as I was heading out Professor Snape spoke up "Remember to come with me after dinner to the Headmaster's office."

I turned back and said, "Oh thank you! I had already forgotten about that."

After dinner I followed Professor Snape to Dumbledore's office.

We were all sitting comfortably when Dumbeldore began, "Now, Esmira. You have two options. There are a number of classes which still have room for another student, and I am certain you could catch up on the homework on account of you not needing to sleep…." I nodded. Dumbledore continued, "Or Professors Snape and Sprout have both expressed a desire at this rare opportunity of having a potentially willing vampire to see what different effects, different from humans that is, if any, various plants or potions would have on you."

"Oh." I said. "The second option certainly sounds more interesting." My first instinct was to want to work with Professor Snape, since I was more familiar with him, but then a thought came to me and I spoke, "Well…I think it would make more sense if I accepted Professor Sprout's offer, because a few potions are entirely plant based, so if the plants had no effect on me individually, I doubt they would have any effect on me combined in a potion. That would narrow down the number of potions Professor Snape would want to try." I glanced at him and he nodded.

"Very well then." Professor Dumbledore said, "I shall inform Professor Sprout to expect you Tuesdays and Thursdays."

000

The next day I found out from Draco that he knew Potter and Weasley would be out of bed because he had challenged them to a duel. I also remembered that I had gotten so caught up with my day to day schedule that I had forgotten to try to find a way into the Gryffindor dorm room. I wanted information and it looked like for now sneaking might be the only way to get it, waiting for Hermione to trust me would take too much time. I waited until during dinner, then I went out by the Great Hall doors and cast the disillusionment charm, hoping that this time would go better than last time with Quirrell, who incidentally, now completely ignored me in class, which was a little annoying but mostly fine. I followed a group of Gryffindor students, when they lead me straight to the portrait of The Fat Lady I was relieved, I had been worried that they might have gone somewhere else.

I heard the lead student give the password "Hobgoblins" and decided that I wouldn't try to sneak in with the group, since I was very worried about bumping into someone. I went a little ways away where the painting couldn't see me and I dismissed the charm.

Then I approached The Fat Lady and said "Hobgoblins".

She scowled at me, "I think I would have remembered seeing a vampire Gryffindor before now. You may know the password but you don't belong. I'm not letting you in. Ah, now I remember you. You came with Professor Snape before, you must be a Slytherin. You aren't the first Slytherin to try to get in here and I daresay you won't be the last." Annoyed, I stuck out my tongue and then ran away. I didn't feel like trying again tonight, but tomorrow I would.

The next night brought no success either. I was under the disillusionment charm again. I tried several times to sneak in after the last student of a group had entered but the portrait closed too quickly. Several other times, when there was only one student entering I tried to go in at the same time, but I could never quite manage to get the timing right since the students entered at different speeds and in one instance a student accidently elbowed me and I stumbled back. The student never even noticed, continuing on. It seemed the only way I would get in is if I was invited in. That's when I thought of Neville and Seamus. It took me several days to work up the courage to speak to them about it. However I was left feeling foolish after that encounter, I had put them in an awkward position, they weren't certain if it was even allowed, of course they couldn't let me go in with them even if I was the most helpful Slytherin they knew (I had helped them a couple more times in Potions) since I wasn't a Gryffindor, and so on and so forth. I decided that it was time I admitted defeat, at least for the time being.

Word somehow spread that I had agreed to conduct experiments with Professor Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff house. The Slytherins couldn't fathom why I had agreed, since to them the connections I could have potentially made in a class far outweighed the one connection I was making with a Hufflepuff professor, even if she was Head of House. The Hufflepuffs thought that I was being extraordinarily kind to submit myself to being experimented on, and the Gryffindors thought that I was brave to do so, the Ravenclaws approved of my adding to the knowledge base about vampires. In short, my decision made me popular with roughly three fourths of the student body, something that I had not expected when I had made it. I don't think the same thing would have happened had I instead went with Professor Snape.

The experiments would have been more interesting if something of note happened during them, but the end result of everything we tried was that it had no effect. That was very interesting for Professor Sprout, but rather boring for me. Although at times it was also a relief, we rubbed various plants on my arms, expecting different rashes to appear and none did. I smelled the fumes of other burning plants and nothing that was supposed to happen did happen. I drank herbal teas and decoctions to no effect. We were both fast coming to the conclusion that I was, well, dead, and dead things don't have living reactions. Professor Sprout assured me though that she'd be able to write a nice long paper from what we were doing and that it was still worth it to continue, just to be sure.

It was a week and a half later that Hermione approached me and asked me if I would like to come over to the Gryffindor Common Room to play a card game that night. She explained that while she did have friends in Harry and Ron, she was a bit like me in that she wasn't friends with any of the girls of her own House, and we got along so well in Potions, that perhaps we could give it a try.

I said, "I think that's a great idea. I don't think I'll be able to invite you to the Slytherin Dorm Room ever though, it's a bit of a dangerous place. People aren't friendly there."

She said, "I understand."

That night saw me in the Gryffindor Common Room playing Exploding Snap with Hermione. It was the first time I played so she had to teach me.

I opened up with small talk, "What's your family like?"

"My father is a dentist and my mother is a stay at home mom. I don't have any siblings, what about you?"

I paused, overwhelmed by the sudden grief that filled my heart as I thought of my family back on Earth, or back in my dimension I guess, since this is also Earth.

Hermione mistook my look of sadness to be for Mr. and Mrs. Thorncrow and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, how thoughtless of me to forget."

"No, it isn't that." I said. "I don't remember them. I was just imagining what it would be like to have…" I trailed off, knowing Hermione would probably complete the sentence in her head as "a family." but what I really thought was _my family here with me_. I squared my shoulders and smiled more brightly than I felt "Anyway, do you think they will allow costumes on Halloween? I don't have one, but then I don't need to dress up in order to be a vampire." I smiled at my own comment, amused.

Hermione smiled too, "I don't know if they will or not." We had a pleasant evening but it was nearing time for me to get back to my dorm when Hermione said, "Alright, I'll tell you what happened that night. Harry and Ron were so stupid to attempt to go to a wizard's duel with Draco. You didn't know about that did you?"

I shook my head, "Not until afterwards."

"Well Draco didn't show up and we were chased by Filch and we found this room with this large three headed dog that was standing on a trap door!" I gasped, I hadn't realized that I'd missed that. "I know!" Hermione said, "We might've been expelled because it was that forbidden place that Dumbledore said we weren't supposed to go to!"

"That's awful." I said. A door slammed, we both jumped and turned to see Fred and George Weasley enter the room. I stood and turned to Hermione, "I think I'd better be going now." She nodded. I brushed past the twins, hurrying out the door.

000

The castle was transformed Halloween morning. Carved pumpkins were everywhere. I always tried to make it six days before getting my dose of blood, but truthfully I started to get hungry every four days. It was like going a few hours without food when you are hungry, except in my case it was two days and sometimes weakness overtook me. This was one of those times, especially seeing everyone else enjoying Halloween treats so much during the day. In the morning I had resolved to be strong and make it the six days, but after seeing everyone else enjoying themselves so much during breakfast and lunch I went to Madam Pomfrey at dinnertime to get my blood. When I exited the infirmary, making my way to the Great Hall, I saw a large group of students in the distance following what looked like a prefect. _Oh my goodness, is the troll tonight? The one day I miss dinner_ (usually I have my packet during breakfast) _the one day._ I had remembered that the announcement from Quirrell would come at dinnertime, just not which dinner.

Now I had a dilemma, go save my friends or go to the forbidden corridor and try to catch Quirrell. I knew they had made it out alright in the books, but that was just dumb luck, it wouldn't necessarily pan out the same. Another thing was the corridor was in the part of the castle that I couldn't get out of. I'd need to be holding a teacher's or a student's hand in order to get away. That would mean explaining why I had been in an area I knew that I couldn't get out of. On the other hand, I knew exactly where the forbidden room was and was fairly certain I could get there quickly even with the shifting staircases and things. I didn't know which girl's bathroom Hermione was in, and there were a lot. I could search through all of them and not get to the right one in time. That decided me, I went to go catch Quirrell.

Instead of heading to the forbidden room, I continued to the Great Hall. I had to dodge a couple of groups of students, but luckily no one saw me. Hopefully I would get to the Great Hall in time to see Quirrell leave it. Halfway there I changed my mind, what if he detected me following him again? I didn't want that to happen. I changed course and headed to the forbidden room, it was now closer than it had been before anyway. I arrived and realized I had a problem. I didn't know if I was the first one to arrive or not. The only way to find out was to enter the room and I really didn't want to do that. I was fairly certain that even if I was under a disillusionment charm Fluffy would be able to smell me. I cast the charm anyway, at least it would protect me from human eyes.

I eased the door open, Fluffy began growling, but didn't pinpoint me in the time it took me to peak around the room and then close the door. I went to wait beside one of the pillars in the hallway near the door. It was then that I realized I hadn't needed to use Alohamora to open the door. Snape was probably already inside waiting for Quirrell. Before I could go and maybe say something to him, or station myself in the room so that he didn't have to deal with both Quirrell and Fluffy alone Professor Quirrell appeared, panting slightly. I drew my wand as he rushed to the door and opened it.

He took one step inside as I cast " _Petrificus Totalis_." Quirrell ducked, but he didn't turn my way. He had to have been avoiding something, whether a spell cast by Snape or…Fluffy, who was barking now. Whatever reason, he had by luck dodged my spell as well. Now he was out of my line of vision. I quickly stepped forward and located him, he had his wand out and cast a nonverbal spell to somewhere in the room that I couldn't see. I didn't want to cast Petrificus Totalis again because I might hit Fluffy or the still invisible Snape.

Instead I moved a bit closer, to give a better chance of success and cast " _Carpe Retractum_." It was a third level spell but it was quite easy for me to cast, I grinned in satisfaction as Quirrell was caught by the trailing rope of light from my wand. Then I remembered that I had to do the "heavy lifting" of pulling Quirrell towards me, which I dutifully started to do. Quirrell, distracted by the rope of light, wasn't looking at Fluffy when the dog jumped on him, knocking him flat and clawing at the back of his head and legs. I saw a howling spirit leave the body. I screamed, it was a high pitched cry, and yanked my arm back holding the wand, Quirrell didn't budge an inch, I wasn't strong enough. I canceled the spell, suddenly Professor Snape was there. Perhaps because he had just seen me use it and couldn't think of anything else in the thick of the moment Professor Snape cast Carpe Retractum and forcefully dragged Quirrell to safety.

The turban was ripped to shreds and Voldemort's injured face was visible. His eyes were closed and his face was slack. Snape knelt and checked Professor Quirrell's pulse, first on his neck, and then on his wrist.

"He's dead." He intoned as he turned to me, his face mottled in anger. I don't know when the spell hiding me had stopped but it was obvious he could see me. "You shouldn't be here. This is your fault."

"It isn't my fault that you decided to have a savage three headed dog here! Nor is it my fault that Professor Quirrell was up to no good! Besides, I saw him dodging a spell that I didn't cast, you were casting spells too!" I emphatically ended with, "One of your spells could have just as easily been the reason why Quirrell didn't react to the dog in time."

He clinched his jaw, but paused, and cast his patronus, presumably to tell Dumbledore. He turned back to me, "I can't take the time to escort you out because I should stay here. What you saw is not to leave this corridor, do you understand?"

"Yes." I said faintly.

"We need to inform the wizarding world that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back, I saw his spirit leave the body wailing, so I don't think he's completely dead."

I nodded, still shaking from the shock of having witnessed someone die, even if that someone was an enemy.

A/N: So I don't know if this is the best place to end this chapter, but I felt the need to get it posted because like I mentioned in the beginning A/N I've started another semester of my Master's program and I won't have much time to work on the story for the next little while.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter VII:

Dumbledore arrived with such a look of fury that he frightened me. I had never seen him look even remotely annoyed before. Here was the man who had killed Grindlewald. He stopped in front of me and looked very much like he wanted to take me by the shoulders and shake me, but he didn't.

"You have no business meddling in the affairs of the professors of this school. We now know that Professor Quirrell was possessed by Voldemort, but if he hadn't been, then this night you would have been the cause of an innocent man's death. Professor Snape is a professional, you are an amateur who has no business in casting spells at another person! Furthermore, now we don't know where Voldemort is. We could have captured him and prevented him from being free. Finally, although this is minor in comparison, we will now have to find a replacement Defense Professor in the middle of the school year. Oh, and one last thing, Professor Snape and yourself will have to testify to the Ministry tomorrow morning on what you saw tonight. I will have to vouch for the both of you. I will stay with the body while Professor Snape escorts you out of this part of the castle, then he will return here. We have much to discuss and to do."

We walked together and Professor Snape offered me his hand at the last possible moment. It was cold, very much like how I felt like right now. He let go and turned back. I continued forward, though not to the Slytherin dorms. It was probably a little past 10 pm. I felt tainted and disgusting. Everything that Dumbledore had said was true. I had been the cause of someone's death, added to that the fact that Professor Quirrell probably was an innocent victim who had just been possessed. That would be an awful fate and now there would be no redemption for him. He was dead. I had known him. He wasn't just a character in a story anymore. He had been my teacher and I had contributed to his death.

My feet carried me to the astronomy tower. What was I doing here? What had I already done? Was this world already doomed because of my arrogance and the knowledge that I shouldn't have? I looked out into the night, but couldn't see much. I didn't particularly feel like going to bed, so I decided to do a bit of stargazing. Maybe I would go for a walk later.

000

Dawn came. Professor Snape got up at 5 am. The Ministry meeting would be at 6:30. He finished getting ready at 5:30 and then realized that they had forgotten to tell Esmira when the meeting would be. He hurried to the Slytherin dorms and knocked on her door. A very sleepy, disgruntled Milicent Bulstrode answered.

"Can you wake up Esmira for me?" He asked.

"Can't." Milicent said, "Don't know where she is. Never came in last night. Maybe she's in the Potions Classroom like last time she didn't come in." Severus was already moving before she finished that last sentence. Esmira was causing him more headaches than any other student had ever done. Even more than that blasted Harry Potter. Why couldn't she just be more…more….or less…less… frustrating, that was it. He reached the Potions Classroom, but she wasn't there. He quickened his pace and practically burst into the Headmaster's office.

"I can't find Esmira."

Dumbledore immediately went to the model of the castle and spoke "Esmira Thorncrow." A light went on right outside the front gates. "She must be thinking that we are going to walk until we are no longer on the grounds of the castle and can apparate." Dumbledore said, "Why don't you go get her, since we'll be using the floo network from my office." Severus nodded, relieved, and left the office. He slowed his pace, feeling much less urgency than before. A light rain was falling and it was quite foggy. Snape strained to see as he exited the main gates. Where was Esmira? Ah, there she was.

000

The trip to the Ministry was uneventful but at the same time nerve wracking. Dumbledore told me what would and wouldn't be appropriate to say about last night and I was very tense whenever I was called upon to speak. Minister Fudge looked at Snape and I rather dubiously and I got the feeling that he wasn't entirely convinced. Dumbledore suggested bringing the body as evidence to show the head on the back of Quirrell's head. At this mention I felt faint and had to lean on a rail for support. One of the people at the Ministry noticed and took pity on me since I "was only a child, why don't we send her back to school?" Dumbledore escorted me back and I made my way to the common room. It was lunchtime and a surprising amount of students were in the common room though nobody except Milicent seemed to notice my arrival. Everyone was talking about how Harry and Ron had nearly killed the troll. That made me feel even worse. They were right on track to being the heroes of this story still and I didn't know anymore how I fit in.

Draco suddenly sat down beside me, I hadn't noticed him approaching. "Where were you last night? We had the rest of the feast here in the common room." I just looked at him until he remembered. "Oh, right. You don't eat." Instead of answering, I sighed and got up, feeling his eyes follow me as I went to my room. That worried me, Draco could be scarily observant and by the process of elimination, he'd know that I wasn't in the common room last night at the feast, and I wasn't involved with the troll, so once news reached the students about Professor Quirrell he'd probably guess I was involved. I didn't know how he would react.

The next morning the Slytherin prefect knocked on the door and told me to go to the Headmaster's office.

Dumbledore had bad news and good news, "The Ministry hasacknowledged the return of Voldemort." I smiled, relieved.

"There's more. Since you have again been brought to the attention of the Ministry, they have also decided that your adoption is invalid since we didn't tell them about your….status as a vampire and since having the school adopt you was so highly irregular it should never have been approved in the first place."

I gasped and looked at him, fearful.

"Since you come from a well-respected Slytherin family, your adoption will be broadcasted to them first, today. Professor Quirrell's death will be announced at dinnertime, but Voldemort's return will not be announced until next week, to put some distance between the news and Professor Quirrell's demise. I grew cold on the inside, this was exactly what I didn't want to have happen. I couldn't bear the thought of living with any Slytherin family. "I'm sorry, Esmira." Dumbledore said. "I'll take care of informing the Slytherin community right after I leave here, you don't need to tell any other students if you don't want to. You'd better get to class." I rushed out of the room, there was one person I had to tell immediately.

"Draco" I hissed at the end of class. He was usually at the front of the pack of students leaving. He looked a bit annoyed to linger behind, but he came over to me.

"What?" I glanced around to make certain no one was listening, but I still wanted to whisper.

"I'm being put up for adoption."

"WHA-"

I covered his mouth with my hand. "Shhh! Dumbledore has already told the Slytherin families by now. Please. I don't want to be adopted by a family I don't know." In my head I thought " _Better the evil I know than the evil I don't._ " "Could you write to your Father?"

Draco nodded, "I can't guarantee anything, but he'll at least consider it if I write to him."

"Can you do it now?" I didn't want Lucius to send a rejection before receiving Draco's letter and I wanted Draco to write the letter before he heard of Quirrell's death.

"Yes."

000

I waited, wondering and wishing I knew already. I didn't have to wait long. The next day Dumbledore called me into his office. Lucius Malfoy and Draco were with him. Inside I was elated, but I didn't let anything show on my face. "Ah, Esmira." Dumbledore said, with a slightly strained smile. "Mr. Malfoy has expressed an interest in adopting you. I believe the Ministry is working out the paperwork now." Lucius turned to face me, "So, this is Esmira whom I have been hearing so much about from Draco." Luckily vampires can't blush because I suddenly thought _Oh dear, does the poor boy like me?_ I merely nodded in response, not wanting to use the cliché line "I hope you've only been hearing good things" because I didn't know how Lucius would answer that question. I felt he was too imperious to answer that with a polite "Of course" if it weren't true.

After a brief pause of silence I realized he was waiting for me to speak and I said, "Thank you Mr. Malfoy, for adopting me." He smiled and I suddenly wondered what his thoughts were. Certainly he hadn't decided to adopt me just because Draco showed an interest in me?

A/N: Again, I don't think this was really the right place to end this chapter, but break was over far too quickly and I've started another semester of school.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter VIII:

Dumbledore looked over the top of his half-moon glasses at all of us. "Well, we really should be letting the children get back to their homework shouldn't we?" He said mildly, diffusing the awkward silence that had suddenly descended upon the room. At a loss for anything to say, I wordlessly curtsied to Mr. Malfoy, who raised an eyebrow, I grabbed Draco's wrist, and rushed out of the room.

After we were down the stairs he wrenched his wrist out of my grasp. "Why'd you run away? Are you scared Thorncrow?" A slight sneer appeared on his face. I suddenly realized that while he'd been slightly nice to me in the past, and he might slightly like me, he wouldn't respect me if I did anything he viewed as weak or wrong.

So I stuck my nose slightly in the air and said, "No, I just…."

"Just what?"

"I just wanted to get back to my homework, like Headmaster Dumbledore said." I responded in an imperious voice, as I turned and started walking back to the Slytherin Dorm. He caught up with me and we walked back the rest of the way in silence.

The weekend passed by far too quickly and I had mixed feelings as I was again called to Dumbledore's office the following Wednesday. Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, as well as three representatives from the Ministry of Magic were present. Papers were signed and the Malfoys were dubiously congratulated, with a bit of sidelong looks at me. Mr. Malfoy seemed very pleased though, and again I couldn't help but wonder why he had agreed to adopt me. On Friday it was announced to the school and the rest of the wizarding world that Voldemort's spirit was at large. I thought this was a smarter thing to do than keeping it quiet like what had happened in the books, no one benefited from not being given a chance to be on their guard. I imagined that maybe Aurors were even now being tasked with finding the horcruxes. Maybe I wouldn't have to do much at all to help defeat Voldemort, and Harry would have a much easier time of it, a less traumatic childhood and teenage years overall, even though he would still have to die.

000

Harry could hardly contain the horror he felt at hearing that Voldemort's soul was out in the world somewhere. Everyone was still reeling from the shock of Professor Quirrell's death, and now this. He was filled with anger at the thought that the monster who killed his parents was now semi-alive again. Why did the world have to be filled with petty, evil people? Why couldn't they all just go away? Why did they have to bother, even kill, good people? He hated Voldemort. Hated Snape. Hated Malfoy. He was in the midst of thinking this when he, Ron, and Hermoine ran into Draco, Crabbe, Esmira, and Goyle.

Draco immediately started to gloat. "Bet you're scared now Potter." Harry felt his hands curl into fists as he looked at Draco's smug face, at Crabbe and Goyle's belligerent ones, and at Esmira's menacing red eyes.

"I'm not scared of anything." He snarled at Draco and shoved past them. Ron shot them a glare and Hermoine wouldn't look at any of them. Back in the Gryffindor Common room Harry said, "I bet they're all happy that Voldemort's back. That makes them as bad as he is!"

000

It was practically obligatory that everyone attend the Quidditch match. Since they didn't have Harry on their team, Gryffindor eventually lost, though they put up a good fight. After they all touched down I thought I saw Wood arguing with the Gryffindor Seeker, hopefully Harry would get the chance to try out next year and that the Seeker wasn't "locked in" for the next couple of years.

Christmas was fast approaching and I was feeling happy, despite the fact that I was nervous to go home to the Malfoy's mansion. When the sheet was passed around to find out who would be staying at Hogwarts over Christmas Break, I had a mad urge to sign my new name, Esmira Thorncrow Malfoy, on it, but I didn't. Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, and I were exiting Potions class when we came across a blocked corridor with Hagrid, an enormous Christmas tree, Ron, Harry, and Hermoine. Draco of course couldn't resist insulting Ron. Ron's face twisted up and he lunged at Draco before Snape's voice rang out stopping him and taking points from Gryffindor. While Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle cleared off I lingered behind, getting an idea. "Hagrid?" I said, "Could I try dragging the tree? I've heard somewhere the vampires are super strong and I want to see if it's true."

Hagrid chuckled, "A slip of a lass like you? I don't think you'll be able to budge it, vampire or no." He was right too, apparently vampires in this world don't have any special powers. I followed a bit behind the group as they all headed towards the Great Hall, I could tell that Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were uncomfortable around me even though Hermoine was slightly my friend. When we got there, Hermoine mentioned going to the library. They seemed to have forgotten about me because they answered when Hagrid asked them why, that they were searching for information on Nicholas Flamel. I was surprised, were they still going on about that? I guess they didn't know that the stone had probably already been destroyed. Then I thought, _Oh no, the mirror was probably never brought to Hogwarts because in the books it was brought after the attempt on Halloween. Wasn't it important that Harry see his parents in it? What if that was one of the memories he used to fight off the Dementors? Oh, I guess that doesn't matter anymore anyway, because Sirius was released from Azkaban._

Hagrid started to laugh, "Yer don't have to worry about that anymore Hermoine. Didn't yer pay attention to the announcement? He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named returned in spirit form. That means he didn't succeed. The attempted break-in at Gringotts doesn't matter anymore."

Hermoine, Harry, and Ron all looked very put out by this announcement, so I said, "If you still want to learn about Flamel just out of curiosity's sake, I believe you'll find the information you're looking for on a chocolate frog." They all turned to stare at me.

I suddenly felt very awkward, and I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand. "Sorry, I just couldn't help but overhear."

"How would you know?" Hermoine asked curiously, "You don't even eat." Oooops. Right…. How was I going to get out of this one? My mind blanked. The Dumbledore card was so common that I couldn't even say I'd heard another student talking about it, because people didn't bother talking about the common cards.

The silence stretched out unbearably until Ron said, "Nevermind then, let's go." I beat a hasty retreat. I was going to have to be more careful. It was just my good fortune that Ron was so impatient. It was then that I remembered that I had seen Ron's name on the list of people staying for Christmas, but not Harry's. I supposed that he was going to stay with Sirius over Christmas break. That would probably be good for the both of them.

The next morning I had expected to get on the train, but Draco said, "My Father has gotten permission for us to travel by floo powder. Much more convenient that way." So we went up to Dumbledore's office and used the chimney. I stared at the opulent hall that I stepped into. Everything was festooned with Christmas decorations.

I was so busy looking up that I nearly tripped over Dobby. "I'll take your things for you Miss." He said, snapping his fingers.

"Right." I said. I didn't dare say thank you, because I didn't want him to start blubbering. I asked Draco, "Are there always this many Christmas decorations?"

Draco nodded, "It's for the Christmas party."

I raised my eyebrows. "Who all will be there?"

"Well, this year we might do a smaller party, since it will be your first. Normally we invite all of the pure-blood elite, but you don't know how to behave yet, so it will probably just be close friends of the family who will be more understanding."

"Oh." I said, I hadn't considered that I would need to learn how to act any differently to be a part of the Malfoy family.

Then, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy appeared coming down the stairs.

"Draco!" Mrs. Malfoy exclaimed, hurrying down. She hugged him, much to his embarrassment. She gave me a hug too, though it was very brief.

Mr. Malfoy spoke. "Dobby will show you to your room Esmira. Then you'll join us for dinner." I nodded and turned to Dobby. I was quite delighted with my room. It was on the third floor and was very nice.

"Dobby? Is Draco's room near mine?"

"No." He said in that squeaky voice of his. "The rest of the family lives on the second floor." I didn't know what to make of that. Naturally I wasn't going to feel a part of the family straight away, but separating me by a floor certainly wasn't going to help that. Unless they didn't want me to feel like a part of the family. Which led me back to the question of why they had adopted me in the first place. I figured that I wouldn't be finding that out any time soon, so I determined that I wouldn't bother worrying about it anymore.

At dinner, while the other Malfoys ate, I remembered it had been a few days since I last had blood. I also realized that it would be about the time of the Christmas party that I would go mad with thirst again. I cleared my throat, but before I could speak Lucius did. "Your parents were very fine Slytherins, Esmira. It's a pity you don't remember them."

"Yes, it is." I said. "Would you tell me a bit about them?"

Mr. Malfoy looked like he was enjoying a private joke as he asked "Did no one at Hogwarts tell you? Why…before the ban, they were both very successful vampire hunters. It seems that someone decided to…make an example of them and insult their legacy by turning you into one." Lucius stared coldly at me and suddenly I felt very unwelcome.

I stood. "If you'll excuse me…"

"Esmira." Narcissa said, "You will get up at eight, we have some shopping to do before the party the day after tomorrow."

"Yes Mrs. Malfoy." I said as I turned and left them. I didn't feel like talking to them about needing blood anymore. What was I going to do?


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter IX:

The next day, I thought, rather annoyed, that Narcissa's idea of "a little shopping" differed greatly from my own. Twenty minutes was already a long time to spend looking for clothes, in my opinion. Instead we had been at it all morning and well into the afternoon.

The one time I had tried to suggest that maybe we could be done now, Narcissa had said, "You are a Malfoy now. You must fit the part." At the first store, my measurements were taken. Narcissa had then sent a house elf ahead to a different store with my measurements. When we got to that store near the end of the shopping trip there was one dress hidden in a black bag that Mrs. Malfoy picked up. While we were shopping, Mrs. Malfoy had also drilled me on etiquette. The Christmas Party would last from four until nine for the adults and would be from four until seven for the children.

When we got back to the manor, Mrs. Malfoy picked up the black bag and taking out the dress said, "You will wear this one tomorrow." I looked at it in dismay, it had one shoulder, but it would bare my other shoulder and it seemed entirely too mature for a twelve year old to wear. It was also blood red, it looked like it would be floor length, but it had a slit up one side, to the knee. In other words, it would be elegant on anyone twice my age, but I would look like a fool.

"Why?" I asked. "This doesn't seem right. That dress is all wrong for me."

"Listen to me Esmira." Narcissa said. "You will never age. And people will always look down on you as a child unless you do something else to show them that you aren't. It doesn't matter that you actually are a child now. First impressions are everything. If we had you dress like a little girl should, that's how these people will always see you. Believe it or not but you are a Malfoy now. You have to go to this party with your head held high and be comfortable and confident in this dress. If you show any awkwardness and act like you are trying to hide then that is what people will see in you for the rest of their lives. Now, we're going to have a full house tomorrow, but you won't have to talk to anyone. It wouldn't be in line with custom for anyone to approach you that you don't already know. They will be talking to Mr. Malfoy and I, but they will be watching you."

I nodded. "Okay, I understand. Draco said it might be a small gathering this year, is that true?" I wouldn't be comfortable, in my last life even I hadn't been one to dress up and go to parties either, but I would try my best. These were ruthless people and I had to do what I could to survive.

"No," Mrs. Malfoy shook her head, "Now, you won't need any make up for your skin, as pale and clear as it is, but I will put a bit of red lipstick on you as well."

"Okay." I said, after all, it would hardly be worse than putting on that dress.

000

Severus Snape was going to be late. He regretted it, but there was nothing he could do. He could get there in the middle of dinner, but he decided to arrive right afterwards, at 6:30, if he was going to be late anyway. He had informed Lucius of this and his friend had been understanding, a few other people wouldn't be able to make it until after the dinner as well. When he arrived there were a few small groups in the main entrance hall, they were holding drinks and talking and laughing.

"Did you see the little tart?" He overheard a woman ask. She said something else, which he didn't catch, and then the group laughed. Snape turned away, bored. It was the usual gossip. He walked up the stairs to the entertaining room on the fourth floor and spotted Lucius, Narcissa, and his godson Draco at once.

He smiled as he went to greet them. "As usual, your Christmas party is a delight and the highlight of my year." He complimented Narcissa and Lucius warmly. "It is also quite nice to see Draco outside of a school setting of course." He shook Draco's hand. "You are looking very smart."

"Thank you sir." Draco said, his eyes flickering to the side to look at something behind him. Severus turned and saw her. She was alone, isolated, by the fire. The light of the flames did nothing to warm her pale skin. She was unconsciously clasping her left shoulder with her hand, in an attempt to cover it. Her eyes were darting everywhere, to see if anyone was looking at her. Her other hand came up to her too red mouth and she bit the knuckle of her first finger before putting her hand swiftly down again. Her hair was done up in a style that was too old-fashioned and out of place. He turned back to the Malfoys, giving no indication that he had seen her. He smiled again and said, "I think I'll just go get a drink." After he picked up a drink at the table he saw the Greengrass family and went to talk with them.

000

I let my hand slide off my shoulder for the billionth time. I had to stop doing that. Narcissa said that I needed to look confident. Well, perhaps it would have been easy for her, but not for me. I was the star of tonight, they said. So, Mr. Malfoy had insisted that I stand by the fire, even though it made me feel weak and tired. Maybe they didn't know about that. They had said that it would provide the best lighting for people to see me. I recognized a few people, the Bulstrodes and the Greengrasses, but other than them it was a sea of unfamiliar faces. Besides Draco, there was no one else my age at the party, and I had been separated from him. I felt so bewildered, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. There was certainly plenty of laughing going on, though I couldn't hear what jokes were being told. I was also starving. As if that thought summoned it, a cloud of red descended on my vision. This was so much worse than last time. There were so many humans in the room, so much blood, _and I couldn't have any of it._ I made the mistake of breathing in. I had to get out of here. Teetering on my custom-made high heels, I made my way swiftly to the large windows that I thought let out into the gardens, shoving past several humans. It took all my willpower not to lunge at any of them. I walked forward in almost a trance, to find myself on a balcony. _No!_ I wasn't thinking straight. This was the fourth floor, but the labyrinth of gardens were on this side of the house. I needed to get further away, and I couldn't go back. I took off my high heels and climbed up on the ledge, dislodging snow as I did so. Dimly, I heard someone call my name. I looked back briefly and bared my teeth at the humans, warning them not to follow, before stepping into the abyss.

000

Draco was now mingling with the guests instead of standing by his mother's side. He was enjoying himself, it was 6:50, almost time for him and Esmira to be sent to bed, so he wanted to make the most of these last few minutes. Suddenly he was shoved hard in the back, he stumbled forward a few steps, crashing into Severus Snape. He turned scowling to see who had pushed him, when he saw that it must have been Esmira. Now she was taking off her heels, what was she doing? When she climbed onto the ledge he cried out, "Esmira!" She turned her head to look back at them and made an inhuman snarling noise, while crouched on the ledge. Then as he watched in disbelief, she stood up and stepped forward. A soft thud sounded moments later.

000

Severus shoved his way through the crowd in seconds to get to the balcony first. It couldn't hold much more than one person. He looked down at the sprawled figure on the ground. As he watched Esmira picked herself up, looked up briefly at him, and turned and started running for the gardens. He looked back into the room where everyone stood in stunned silence.

Lucius started to laugh, "She has a wild streak, doesn't she Severus? She can't help but want to be the center of attention. No doubt she didn't want to go to bed like she was told." Lucius's eyes looked into his, daring him to say otherwise.

Snape said smoothly, "She certainly does have a penchant for getting into trouble and breaking the rules. This shows a disregard for authority." Some people laughed, and it was real laughter, not strained. They had drunk plenty already to believe anything. Snape went to Lucius. "What should we do?"

"Don't worry." His friend replied, "I'll take care of it."

000

I ran until I couldn't run anymore. I was hopelessly lost and in the dark I had banged into stone benches and tripped and hit my cheek on the edge of a fountain. I fell to the snow-covered ground, shivering and gasping for air that wasn't filled with the scent of blood. I lifted my hand to my throat as I imagined getting to drink.

000

" _Lumos._ " Lucius lit the tip of his wand as he stepped out of the house. The guests were leaving, those who hadn't been in the room at the time of Esmira's fall didn't even realize she was missing. Narcissa was seeing everyone out. The gardens were large, but he didn't have to be a master detective to follow the trail of footsteps. He came across her in a small clearing. Her hair had come undone and there was a horizontal gash on her cheek.

Esmira didn't even have time to lift her head before Lucius extinguished the light on his wand and then cast " _Petrificus Totalis_ " and then " _Wingardium Leviousa_ " because trying to carry someone who was as straight as a board was awkward at the best of times.

000

Draco had gone to bed at 7, but there was no way he was going to miss Esmira coming back. He snuck out of his room and stayed hidden while he watched his Mother say goodbye to Professor Snape, who was the last one to leave. Then he clambered downstairs and dodged past her as he pulled the front door open. He was just in time too as he opened the door to a floating Esmira.

His Father frowned when he saw him. "Draco, go to bed." He said as he began floating Esmira up the stairs to her room. Draco followed his Father up the stairs until he got to the second floor and went to his room.

The next morning he learned from Dobby that his Father had gotten Esmira a blood packet from somewhere, had stood just outside the door of her room to un-petrify her, and then had slammed the door shut and locked it.

He went to breakfast and his mother said, "We're keeping that creature locked in her room for the rest of Christmas break. She behaved disgracefully at the party." Draco couldn't help but agree. Imagine, jumping off the balcony like that. She'd nearly given him a heart attack.

000

I sat on my bed, staring at the door. The previous evening seemed almost like a dream. I vaguely remembered that a human had come and cast the petrifying spell on me, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out who it had been. I got up and went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I remembered banging in to a few things but when I looked I didn't have any bruises like I should have and nothing hurt. I did have a cut on my face and that did hurt. I went to try to open my door, but it was locked. Dobby's voice said, "You are to stay in your room for the next week until you go back to school Miss." "What?" I muttered, running my hand through my hair. I went to fetch my wand and cast _Alohamora_ on the door. I heard it unlock, but as I reached for the handle I heard it lock again. "I was told to make certain that you stayed in your room." How annoying. "Dobby?" I said. "Would you please let me out?" _Uh oh, now you've done it._ I thought when Dobby said, "Please? Please? Dobby has never had anybody say please to him before." and then burst into loud sobbing. Maybe I shouldn't try to get him to let me out after all. If I did somehow manage it, Lucius would no doubt punish him severely. I went to the little bookshelf. At least there were a few good books that I would enjoy reading.

000

Professor Snape was not looking forward to teaching classes again. Only a very few of his students really understood potions and teaching the rest was a real chore. There was one class in particular that he was particularly dreading, the first year Slytherins and Gryffindors. That wretched Harry Potter was among them. At least he got to see his godson Draco in the same class. He saw when Daphne Greengrass entered the room and smiled, thinking about the nice conversation he had with her parents. His thoughts drifted to his other students, Blaise Zabini was doing poorly, so was Ron Weasley, but that was no surprise. He mentally groaned when he thought of the insufferable Hermoine Granger, she had the know-how, but not the heart of a potion master. There she was, working at the same cauldron as Esmira. So Lucius had taken care of finding her after all. There always seemed to be at least one trouble magnet in the class. Actually in this particular class there were three, Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnigan took up nearly all his mental energy in just trying to keep them alive. No, he was not looking forward to it, but he stood up, and started his lecture anyway.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: I've noticed an inconsistency that's been bothering me for a while now. I've said that Esmira can't sleep, but at the same time she can fall unconscious, which is similar enough that I feel like she should be able to either do both or neither. I'm going to go back and change my earlier chapters to say that vampires can sleep.

Chapter X

Harry Potter almost didn't want to go back to school after Christmas break. He couldn't believe he had such an amazing godfather, but it was clear to him that Sirius had also been through a lot and needed rest. His house was also rather spooky and Sirius said it would take a while to make it look nicer. Harry noticed that Sirius got tired rather quickly, so even though they'd gone out of the house a few times, they'd only ever gone to one place at a time and then returned to the house. Harry supposed this was why Sirius suggested that he should stay with his Aunt and Uncle for at least one more summer. Sirius took Harry to the train platform, and as he was saying goodbye he laid a hand on Harry's shoulder. Suddenly Sirius looked up and his hand tightened

"Ow." Harry said.

"Sorry." Sirius said, dropping his hand. Harry turned around to see who he was looking at. It was the Malfoys. Only Mrs. Malfoy seemed to have noticed Sirius, and she gave a hesitant smile, before ushering Draco and Esmira onto the train. Harry turned back to look at his godfather, only to find that he was striding away. He shrugged and got on the train, looking for Ron and Hermoine.

000

I studied diligently. I had always done well at school, through lots of hard work, and I wasn't about to change that now. Classes were just now starting to lose their "ohmygoshthisismagic" feel and were beginning to feel more normal. They were still more exciting than regular school, don't get me wrong, but I could imagine that by the time I graduated I'd be glad not to be going to classes anymore. Almost before I knew it we had finals and then we were heading home again for Summer break. I grinned, year one complete, only six more to go now. My reception at "home" was surprisingly warm, I had expected the Malfoys to be more indifferent, or worse, immediately lock me in my room again. About halfway through the Summer, they called for me and Draco to come see them. We ate (or rather they ate while I sat at) meals together but other than that they usually let us do whatever we wanted. Draco would usually go out and ride his broom and I stayed in the library, reading. I was surprised to see presents on the table.

Narcissa smiled, "Happy Birthday, Esmira!"

My surprise must have shown on my face, because she laughed. I hadn't known that "my" birthday was July 15th. I opened my presents with gusto. They had gotten me several nice books, a couple of nice new clothes, and an enchanted glass ballerina, who twirled when you pressed a button. I've always loved books, but the glass ballerina was definitely my favorite. As I was thanking them for all the presents, Mr. Malfoy left the room and then came back with one more wrapped box.

He said, "We've saved the best for last Esmira. Open it." I did, it was a nice leather bound book. I opened it expecting another novel, but the first few pages were empty. I flipped through the rest of the empty pages and looked up at him, confused.

"What is it?" I asked,

He said, "This is a very special diary, Esmira. Go on, write something in it. You'll see." He set a pen and ink on the table in front of me.

"Okay." I said, then I wrote _Today is July 15_ _th_ _1992_. When what I had written disappeared and the words, _Is it really?_ appeared I felt alarmed, recognizing now what it was but the feeling was quickly smothered by a new feeling of overwhelming happiness. I'd gained a new friend, something which I was in short supply of. How could I not respond back? It would just be plain rude. _Yes, it is, it's also my birthday._ I wrote back. _Happy Birthday!_ The diary responded. I looked up at Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy and jumped up, snatching the journal off the table and hugging it.

"Thank you so much!" I said. Of course, there was a large part of my brain that was shouting at me "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" but I couldn't bring myself to care. I hadn't felt this happy in _years._ Not since my own childhood, when everything was magical and new. That's not to say that I hadn't been happy plenty of times since my childhood, but this was something else entirely, in fact, I decided, I was happier than I had ever been, which almost didn't seem possible. I decided to savor it, and only write in the journal once a week, at least until I got back to school.

Then it was time to go to Flourish and Bott's to get Lockhart's books. Even though I knew what he'd done, I was still interested in reading his books, since I knew the adventures in them were true, just not had by him. When we got there, the Weasley's and Harry Potter were just leaving. It was a bit disconcerting the way Harry, Ginny, and Ron glared at us all throughout the nasty exchange. Apparently, they'd given me up as a piece of bad work just for being a part of the Malfoy family now.

000

I suppose I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was to find out that not only was Draco now taller than me, but everyone in my class was.

Milicent said, "You're so short!"

Blaise Zabini elbowed her and hissed, "Of course she is, she doesn't age."

I ignored them in favor of looking out the train window. The sorting feast was relatively uneventful except for when Snape, McGonagell, and Dumbledore were all out of the room to deal with Ron and Harry. Everyone around me wondered what was going on. I didn't say a word. There was no point. The next morning, the sky of the Great Hall was overcast, and I was late. I arrived at the same time that the owls did. I'd been writing in the journal; Tom was surprisingly funny and didn't mind my run-on sentences or the way that I wrote exactly how I thought. Having to tear myself away in the middle of a conversation made me angry that I couldn't continue writing. I was annoyed at the world in general and when I saw Ron's owl land in his porridge with a red letter in his beak my anger grew to an irrational fury. I didn't want Mrs. Weasley's shrieking voice to be the first thing to greet me this morning.

" _Accio_ Howler" I cried, pulling out my wand. Letter in hand, I intoned, " _Incendio._ " As the ashes fell from my hand, I noticed how deathly quiet the Great Hall had gotten. I scowled and muttered " _Scourgify._ " As even the ashes disappeared my frustration only grew, why was everyone looking at me like that?

"Hey! That was MY letter you just burnt up!" Ron marched up to me. My scowl deepened and I rolled my eyes.

"It wasn't like you wanted to be yelled at anyway Weasley. A thank you would suffice." I bit out.

He began spluttering, "Why you stuck-up…" I turned on my heel and left. I stormed down to my room, wanting to write about it to someone who would really understand me and make me feel happy again. Classes were an interruption from happiness, so I was nearly always snappish. Lockhart was especially fun to be rude to. He seemed to be flummoxed by having an actual vampire in his class. In the first class, when it came to the silly questions, he asked about himself, I wrote that his secret ambition was not to get on his vampire student's bad side and that his greatest achievement to date was having avoided meeting me (his possibly soon-to-be worst nightmare) thus far in his life. After that his grin became sort of frozen whenever he saw me. I just smirked back at him.

Then, after getting into my nightgown I was writing in the journal one night and things went really hazy. I felt like I was drifting on a cloud and I couldn't see beyond really fuzzy shapes. I had the feeling that I should try to wake myself up, but I couldn't seem to care at first. I finally snapped out of it to find my hands letting go of a dead rooster. My head swiveled around and then nodded once, probably in satisfaction, as Tom double-checked that everything was dead. My passive astonishment was broken when I pulled out a knife. I spasmed, trying to regain control. Tom laughed, and dragged a chicken over to a bucket where he slit its throat, letting the blood run. He kept on laughing as I made my arms flail again, my voice sounded wrong to my ears. He stopped laughing when I dropped the knife. He bent to pick it up, I jerked to the side, slipped, and landed on the floor. Stunned, I wondered then if he'd cast a silencing charm on the chicken coop to stop Hagrid from hearing the death of his roosters. Taking advantage of my distraction, Tom reached out, grabbed the knife, bringing it close, his hand making a fist around it, holding it upright, and began to get on all fours. I tried to gain control again, but apparently my efforts were too weak, weaker than what Tom thought they were going to be, and he overcompensated my commands to get away from the knife and let go of it by lunging towards it and tightening his grip. The knife sunk into my left ribcage. Everything went hazy again.

This time, even though I was internally flailing, I couldn't escape from the dreamy clouds. I also got the sense that I was out of it for longer than I had been earlier tonight. Eventually I felt myself being nudged back into awareness. I found myself standing in an unfamiliar room in the castle that looked to be some sort of supply closet. My head looked down and I could see that a small puddle of blood was forming by my feet, and that I was still bleeding.

Tom spoke, "I was originally going to return you to your bed you know, but you've been a naughty girl, causing me trouble earlier. I've left you a note in my journal for you to see when you make it back, _if_ you make it back. After all, I can always find someone else. Do you know what happens to a vampire when they completely run out of blood? They turn to ash. I'll just let you dwell on what might happen to you if you turn on me again. It'll be much worse next time, I won't give you a chance to survive, like I'm giving you now." He lay on the floor next, which confused me, but then he turned my wand on me, I hadn't even noticed I was holding it, he must have switched it with the knife while I wasn't aware, and he cast Incarcerous at myself. Thin cords encircled my legs and arms. He was capable of casting wandless magic, so he let go of my wand behind my back and then levitated it far out of reach, and then he was gone.

I was left with the sound of my own breathing, though I only took two breaths before I stopped. I had kept on making the breathing motions out of habit but it hurt too much right now. All I could think about besides the pain was what Tom had said, that once a vampire loses all its blood it would turn to ash, just like I had turned the letter to ash. I kept on picturing it, and hearing the sound of myself being stabbed, over, and over, and over again. He'd won, I couldn't stop him, especially since I was, more likely than not, about to turn to ash. When the door creaked open, I wasn't prepared to face anyone yet.

000

Felicia and Darius knew all the best places to snog. They were Slytherins, so they had nothing to fear from last night's message. When they opened the door to their favorite supply closet and Felicia saw someone murdered lying in a puddle of blood she screamed. Darius didn't scream, but he slammed the door shut and went very pale.

After several minutes he said hoarsely, "Let's go get Snape."

Felicia had recovered enough that she said, "Not yet, we should at least tell him who it is." They looked at each other. They looked at the door. Then Darius took a big breath and opened the door. The girl was lying on her side, facing away from the door, with her hands bound behind her back and her ankles were tied together too. He approached her and put his hand on her shoulder, pulling her towards him and onto her back. She hissed. Startled, he pulled away his hand and noted her red eyes before seeing the knife. He swallowed.

"What happened?" He asked. She only blinked in response.

"What's your name?" He tried, though he very well knew what it was. There weren't any other vampire students. Esmira didn't answer him, she just kept on blinking. Darius pulled out his wand and cast Emancipare to free her and then Aguamenti to clean her wound.

"I'll leave the actual healing to Madam Pomfrey." He said. Suddenly Felicia darted past him and picked up a wand.

He smiled, "Nicely spotted."

Esmira trembled when he picked her up, but she still said nothing. He frowned. After he had deposited her in Madam Pomfrey's care, with Felicia trailing behind, he went to Professor Snape. Luckily, today was Sunday, so he wouldn't have to interrupt him from teaching.

000

Severus Snape was in his office going over the Mandrake restorative draught recipe. The sooner he could restore Mrs. Norris to full health the sooner Filch would stop being a menace to the students. Not, that Snape cared about what the students were going through all that much, but since Filch wasn't exactly a ray of sunshine on the best of days it would be better for everyone if he got his cat back. Severus only hoped that Filch managed to get the Potter boy in detention at least once in the interim though, the boy and his friends had clearly been lying through their teeth last night in Gilderoy's office. A knock sounded at the door. "Enter." He said, not bothering to look up. It was probably some whiny student hoping to get their grade changed on their in-class potions assignment. A throat cleared, only it sounded a bit strangled. Snape looked up, recognizing Darius and Felicia, they both looked like death warmed over.

"A student has been attacked, Sir." Darius said without preamble.

Severus stood up. "Which one?"

"It's Esmira. We couldn't get a word out of her." Felicia replied. Severus relaxed, if she was protecting someone, the damage couldn't have been too bad. Someone was probably retaliating against Slytherin House in general or against the Malfoys in particular after Draco's admittedly insensitive words last night. Though, now that he thought about it, he hadn't noticed Esmira in the crowd. Of course, he'd had more pressing things to focus on.

Felicia was still speaking though and Severus tensed up again at her words, "We took her to Madam Pomfrey. We found her lying on the floor all tied up. She was conscious but looked dazed. Here's her wand." Felicia handed the wand to Snape.

Severus pulled out his own wand and cast " _Priori Incantatem_." It showed that Esmira's wand had last cast Incarcerous. Snape frowned, either the girl had for some unfathomable reason cast it at herself or she'd been weak or irresponsible enough to let another wizard get ahold of her wand. Either option wasn't good. Then he thought of something else.

"Thank you, Felicia and Darius. I'll go see her now." He set off at a brisk pace.

He nearly ran into Madam Pomfrey in the doorway of the infirmary as she was leaving.

She said, "Good, you're here. I'm just going to fetch the Headmaster to see if he can get some answers out of her. She hasn't said a word. I didn't like the idea of leaving her alone, so at least you'll be able to keep her company." She hurried past him and he decided not to call her back to ask her about his student's wound in favor of going inside.

Esmira was propped up in one of the beds. Her face fell for some reason when she saw him. Severus took a chair while she looked down at her hands. He didn't speak, thinking that since Madam Pomfrey and the students hadn't gotten anywhere with asking questions, maybe all he needed to do was wait and she'd start talking. He was right, in a sense.

She did say something, but it was, "I don't want to talk to you," in an upset voice. "I'll talk to Professor Dumbledore but you don't need to hear anything I have to say."

Fortunately, at that moment the man in question opened the door.

"Ah, Esmira." He said softly as he approached the bed, Madam Pomfrey was right behind him.

"Would you tell us what happened to you?"

She looked at the three of them, "I don't want an audience."

"Very well." Dumbledore replied, "Madam Pomfrey, would you please leave us."

Esmira looked sullen after Pomfrey left, "Why didn't you tell Professor Snape to leave as well?" Severus couldn't figure out the change in Esmira, she had been rather rude to everyone of late, if Gilderoy Lockhart and the whispers of the students were to be believed.

Dumbledore smiled reassuringly at her, "Well, Professor Snape is here because he does have rather more experience when it comes to the dark arts than our current professor filling that position. You may not have heard but there was a nasty message written on the wall last night that is, how shall I put it, a very Slytherin message. I just want to make certain that we are perfectly clear in explaining to you that there is nothing to be ashamed of from being temporarily kidnapped or from being under the Imperious curse, or from anything else you may have experienced in the past hours, child."

Esmira looked horrified and said in nearly a whisper, "It wasn't the Imperious curse that made me kill those roosters and write that message."

Dumbledore looked nearly as shocked as Snape felt. Esmira had been the one to write the message? What roosters?

"What was that?" Dumbledore asked.

She spoke a little louder, "It wasn't the imperious curse. It wasn't really kidnapping either. I was…I was possessed…"

Snape and Dumbledore sat in stunned silence for a few moments before Snape asked, "How were you possessed?"

Esmira tried to speak, but she merely got more and more frustrated before she ground out. "I. don't. know."

Severus had the distinct impression that she was lying, but had no idea why she would.

"Don't lie to me." He snapped.

Her mouth formed a thin line as she kept it shut.

His derision was almost palpable.

Albus spoke up, "If you don't know, then perhaps you weren't possessed at all."

"I was!" Esmira cried out. "I had a knife, he made me strangle those roosters, and I fought with him for control. He made me cast Incarcerous at myself and I tried to take back control, which is how I got hurt. There was no intruder. It was me, only it wasn't."

"Very well." Albus said, looking troubled. "Professor Snape and I will discuss this further. We'll be certain to keep a close eye on you to intervene if it happens again."

They left Esmira, Severus pretended not to notice the despairing look on her face, and as they were walking the halls Albus said, "It's 1992, possession is unheard of. I have no doubt that Esmira believes she is telling the truth, but more likely she has the strength of will that she semi-fought off the effects of the imperious curse and merely mistook what she was feeling for possession."

Severus wasn't so certain, "There was Professor Quirrell…" he began.

Albus frowned, "Professor Quirrell had Voldemort's face on the back of his head, I think we would have noticed just now if the same thing happened to Esmira. Furthermore, Esmira doesn't speak parsletongue, and the intruder needed to have, in order to open the Chamber of Secrets. No, we'll keep an eye on her, and we'll look for this intruder. I don't like the idea of someone being able to come in here and in the process of kidnapping one of our students, give her such a fright that she's become an unreliable witness."

000

When I was finally released, I headed straight for the diary. As promised, Tom had written a message for me to read. I stared at the red letters in dismay. _I, Esmira Thorncrow Malfoy, am writing in my own blood to seal the following oath. I will continue writing in this journal every day and I will tell no one about it._ The words seeped into the journal and I knew I was in serious trouble if I couldn't convince someone I was possessed. I needed, I realized, to talk with Harry Potter. He wouldn't have preconceived notions about what was and wasn't possible in the wizarding world. 


End file.
